Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has stated that Kyle Walker has asked that he wants to leave the club, Afrosport reports.
The England full-back was not part of the squad that thumped Salford City 8-0 in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.
The likes of Ilkay Kevin de Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Rico Lewis and Josko Gvardiol were all named in the squad albeit as unused substitute and when asked why Walker was not included, Guardiola responded: “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.
“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.”
Guardiola further narrated about the situation: “He asked [to leave] two years ago after the treble. 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.”
Kyle Walker joined Manchester City from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2017 and has played 319 competitive games, scoring six goals and providing 23 assists.
He has won a total of 17 titles including the treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in 2023.
