Pep Guardiola has revealed that Kyle Walker has asked to leave Manchester City.
The England defender was left out of the squad for the 8-0 win over League Two side Salford City in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Asked after the game about the reason behind Walker’s omission, Guardiola explained that Walker asked City director of football Txiki Begiristain on Thursday to be allowed to move to “another country” in the January window.
“It’s not easy for me to say because I should tell him, but he’s not here, so two days ago Kyle asked to explore the options to play abroad at the end of his career,” Guardiola told a news conference.
“He’s been our right-back, giving us something we didn’t have, but now in his mind he would like to explore to go to another country to play his last years for many reasons. For that reason, I prefer to play other players whose mind is here. He went to Txiki. He asked to explore, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen because you never know the situation.”
Walker came close to leaving the Etihad in 2023 when Bayern Munich offered him a two-year contract. He was convinced to stay after holding a private dinner with Guardiola and later signed a new three-year deal and was made club captain.
Interest from Saudi Arabia last summer came to nothing, but after a poor start to the season with City, the 34-year-old, who arrived from Tottenham in 2017, has lost his place as a regular starter.
“He asked [to leave] two years ago after the treble,” Guardiola said. “Bayern wanted him but the offer was not good enough and the club [told] him how important he is. We cannot understand the success we had these years without Kyle. It’s impossible.
“I respect a lot because I’m more than grateful since he has been [here] many years for us. His first season here, we started to win, win, win, win, win.
“He’s been important for the national team and important for our team but he said that ‘I want to explore, my mind and my heart and I want to explore it’. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
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