Ilkay Gundogan‘s wife revealed to Mail Sport earlier this year how much she was missing life in Manchester.
The German midfielder appears to be on the verge of a return to Manchester City with a ‘deal in place’ to bring him back, as per Fabrizio Romano.
City’s former captain looks set to join on a one-year deal, returning to the side he skippered to the treble in 2022-23.
It comes after a turbulent year in Barcelona, with the LaLiga giants reportedly willing to let him leave for free amid their financial issues.
In an exclusive chat with Mail Sport in February, Sara Gundogan said she was ‘sad’ to leave for Barcelona in the first place.
Sara Gundogan revealed she misses Manchester in a chat with Mail Sport earlier this year
There is a ‘deal in place’ for Gundogan to move back to Man City from Barcelona after a year
He won 14 trophies in a seven-year spell at City, with Sara supporting him along the way
‘When I was in Manchester, my whole life was (originally) around football,’ she said.
‘My friends were football, the people I met through my husband, and then I didn’t have anything that was just my world outside of that.
‘And I’m a social person. So it took me a bit of time, but I made it friends and it was really nice.
‘After making friends, I was really happy. I had my own life and routine in Manchester and I have one of my best friends there.’
Discussing the difficulty of swapping England for Spain, she added: ‘Over the years I would see friends moving.
‘So it’s something that’s always around in football and you would suddenly just have a phone call from them telling you they’re going to another country.
‘So, it’s always around, it’s always happening, but I didn’t imagine that it would be us and when it’s you it’s big a shock.
‘It’s always sad, especially because you make friends, you’re happy somewhere, you build your life and then you have to leave all the people you love.’
Sara revealed that after a tricky bedding in period, she grew to love her time in Manchester
When she was told Ilkay would join Barcelona, Sara said she found it tough to leave the city
However, things were sometimes tricky off the pitch, with Sara infamously criticising Manchester on occasions, which included one rant about the quality of the food in October 2022.
She posted on her Instagram story: ‘Sorry, I’m sad to be honest but nothing. I tried [sic] so bad to find a good restaurant but horrible food everywhere.
‘Can’t find a real Italian…