Kyle Walker was key to Manchester City winning the Champions League according to Micah Richards who was reflecting on the full-back almost leaving the club to join Bayern Munich.
City claimed their first Champions League trophy in May, beating Inter in the final in Istanbul.
Rodri was the man who got the goal, on what was an historic night for the club.
City will launch a defence of their title tonight, as they take on Red Star Belgrade in their first group stage match at the Etihad.
One man who will surely feature is Walker, who has played every game so far this season for City.
Walker recently signed a new contract with the club – and Richards has been speaking about him almost leaving in the summer…
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Micah Richards says Man City simply had to keep Kyle Walker this summer, amid interest from Bayern Munich
Richards spoke about Walker on the latest The Rest is Football podcast.
He, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer were talking about the brilliant announcement video Walker starred in for his new deal.
And Richards then spoke about how important it was for City to keep the 33-year-old.
He said: “Do you remember when we spoke… is Kyle Walker going to stay? Kyle Walker was the difference between winning the Champions League and potentially not at times. Because of Mbappe and Vinicius. So when I’m looking (at the reports) ‘Kyle Walker could potentially be going to Bayern Munich’, and they’ve got Kane. It’s only making them stronger, they had to get him nailed down!”
Walker is already showing how vital it was Man City kept him
Walker genuinely might have left City in the summer.
It was reported that he wasn’t too happy about being left out of the starting XI for the final against Inter.
He had apparently agreed terms with Bayern. And the German giants were said to be confident of landing him.
But Pep Guardiola intervened and was able to convince the £160,000-a-week player to stay.
He’s now signed a new contract, and Walker has quickly shown what an important decision it was to keep him.
In these opening weeks of the season, he has been one of City’s best players, and looks better than ever.