In the eyes of so many Manchester City fans, Ilkay Gundogan is Mr Cool – so one new admission he has made will come as a surprise to some people.
The German midfielder returned to the club this summer after a year at Barcelona, which rather came out of the blue.
Gundogan had been one of the best players in La Liga last season. But the Spanish giants made a move for Dani Olmo, and needed to offload Gundogan due to his high wages to help them register their new man.
City quickly caught wind of Gundogan’s availability.
After just a few days, his move back to the Etihad Stadium was complete – and the 33-year-old should now play a prominent role, especially following the knee injury to Rodri.
Gundogan is known for being cool, calm and collected. But he’s made a rather interesting admission about striving for perfection.
Ilkay Gundogan says he even gets nervous for Man City training sessions in pursuit of perfection
Gundogan is one of the players who makes things look effortless.
He gives the impression that he is very confident, and that he knows exactly what he is doing.
Those things are true. But Gundogan is human and also feels the nerves just like anyone else.
The player was speaking on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast, and revealed that he actually gets nervous for training sessions, purely because of the pressure he puts on himself to be perfect.
He said: “I think it’s important to at least target it (perfection). To try to achieve certain things you think are your qualities.
“Don’t try to miss any opportunities of setting those targets.
“I always take the example of me going into training sessions. Don’t try to lose the ball, or do any mistakes. Believe it or not, even in training sessions I still get nervous, because I don’t want to make any mistakes. We play a rondo, I don’t want to misplace a pass or lose a ball, you know?
“I’m nervous for it! I have this tension that you have also for games. I don’t know why to be honest with you. But I feel it’s important for me for the way I want to perform. That I have this feeling in training sessions.
“It keeps me awake. It keeps me on my front foot and it helps me and my game, to stay on a certain level. That was always the case, and also the reason I think I can perform at such a high level with these great players.”
A surprising claim
It is fascinating to hear a top, experienced player like Gundogan admit that he even gets nervous for training sessions. But his explanation just makes you love him even more.
Perfection does not really exist. But Gundogan is right to suggest that we should at least target it.
It goes some way to explaining why he is as good as he is. And why he will surely keep a high level as he heads to his mid-thirties.
In a way, he is a bit like Pep Guardiola in the way he strives for perfection.
One day, Gundogan will become a manager and it would be no surprise if he operates in a similar way to the Spaniard.
Pep himself has already said that he expects Gundogan to become a top tactician one day, and few would bet against it.
