Arjun Menon
Gvardiol: I nearly quit football for basketball — now a Manchester City mainstay
Josko Gvardiol says he almost walked away from football as a teenager to play basketball, a choice that now seems unimaginable after his £77m move to Manchester City in August 2023 made him the second-most expensive defender ever.
At 16, while trying to win minutes with Dinamo Zagreb’s youth side, Gvardiol admitted he was uncertain about his future in the game and was tempted by the sport his friends were playing.
“I was thinking about quitting because I like basketball as well,” Gvardiol told BBC Sport. “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 stayed, worked his way into Dinamo’s first team, helped the club to consecutive league titles and finished his time there with a league and cup double. A £16m move to RB Leipzig followed — at the time a record fee for a Croatian teenager.
After 87 appearances in Germany, Gvardiol signed a five-year contract at Manchester City in 2023. Only Harry Maguire’s £80m transfer to Manchester United in 2019 tops the fee paid for a defender.
Since arriving at City the 23-year-old has become a regular in Pep Guardiola’s side. No defender has scored more Premier League goals than him since his arrival.
“My dream obviously was to become a professional football player, but I didn’t know that I was going to go that far,” he 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.”
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Gvardiol spoke about the drive that pushed him through fitness issues and a knee injury. He said last season he simply wanted to play.
“In my head last season I was like, ‘no matter what, how I feel, no matter if I am fit or not, I just want to play. I just want to compete to help the team’. I could feel it on my body, especially in the summer. I had a [knee] injury but now it’s finally good after six months.”
Last season his minutes were enormous — more than 6,000 for club and country. He featured in 55 of City’s 61 matches and missed only 140 Premier League minutes across the campaign. A recent Fifpro report placed him eighth in the world for matchday squad inclusions in 2024-25.
Pep Guardiola has been effusive in his praise.
“We cannot forget last season he was one of the most important players, in terms of he played and played and played,” Guardiola said. “He’s so young, physically he is outstanding, can play in two roles perfectly. He’s incredible, coach-able, listens a lot, wants to improve and that will help him to be a better player.”
Guardiola used Gvardiol at left-back for much of last season, including during a difficult run when City managed one win in 13 games and ended the campaign without a trophy for the first time since 2016-17. Gvardiol reflected on that period and the work the squad did to recover.
“Once it started, it was quite difficult to get out of. We spoke about it a lot of times and we were trying to find a solution. At the end we managed to be in the Champions League again and be in the FA Cup final.”
This season City look steadier. After losing two of their opening three Premier League games they have gone five without defeat. Gvardiol is back in his preferred left-sided centre-back role.
“I’m happy to be back to my position,” he said. “Just play simple, protect the goal, defend the goal. Obviously we have new goals this season and we want to aim high. But I like to say that it’s quite early to talk about our goals, the season is long so let’s go game by game.”
Former England forward Ellen White told BBC Sport that Gvardiol’s shift back to centre-back has strengthened City’s defence.
“He was all right at left-back and scored a lot of goals. The stats speak for themselves – they are now conceding less goals, and shots faced as well. The partnership he has built with Ruben Dias, and having Rodri in front and Gianluigi Donnarumma behind, they are building the connections and relationships that they didn’t have last season.”