Manchester City defender, Josko Gvardiol, has revealed how he nearly quit football for basketball.
The 23-year-old’s revelation was factored because of his struggle to get enough during his time at Dinamo Zagreb.
The Croatian speaking with BBC said he was eager to play football for Zagreb’s youth team even though he was only 16 at that time. He stated that as he was sparingly used, he considered venturing into basketball because he liked it, too.
“I was thinking about quitting because I like basketball as well. I wasn’t sure in football any more because when you get to the training ground you don’t feel happy any more, you know?
“I was just trying to find other solutions and to feel happier than I felt before because all of my friends were playing basketball.”
He broke into the team after helping the club win two trophies. After an impressive campaign, he joined German side RB Leipzig in a £16m transfer-record for a Croatian teenager a that time, playing 87 times for the club.
He would later catch the eyes of Pep Guardiola who asked for his signature. Gvardiol was signed for a record £77m to Manchester City, making him the second-most expensive defender in the Premier League.
However, Gvardiol confirmed that although he wanted play time as a youth player, he did not know he would go far.
“My dream obviously was to become a professional football player, but I didn’t know that I was going to go that far,” Gvardiol said.
“If you go five years back and ask me, do you see yourself at Manchester City in 2023, ’24, ’25? I would say no chance, like really impossible.”
He’s now a regular for Guardiola’s side having played over 6,000 minutes for both club and country last season, appearing in 55 of City’s 61 games. Quite impressively, no defender in the Premier League has scored more than the Croatian since his arrival to the league.
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