Pep Guardiola: Man City boss 'freed of Champions League curse' | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has been 'freed from the African curse' that was preventing him from winning the Champions League with Manchester City - according to the man who first called for it.

Dimitri Seluk, the former agent of ex-Man City midfielder Yaya Toure, insisted back in 2018 that African shaman would put a hex on the Spaniard to stop him from winning European football's top prize at the Etihad Stadium.

Seluk made his declaration having previously questioned Guardiola's approach to selecting African players.

When City infamously failed to acknowledge Toure's birthday in 2014, the Ukrainian was said to have snarled: "The day he [Guardiola] picks a team with five Africans in it, I promise I will send him a cake.

Relations between Seluk and the Manchester club were particularly strained when the agent made his comments regarding the curse, given that Toure only made one appearance in the Premier League during his final season under Guardiola.

While it appeared to simply be a case of sour grapes at the time, the legend of the curse has grown over the years, as the Champions League has remained the only major trophy to elude Guardiola during his time at City.

With City set to resume their quest for Champions League glory against Real Madrid in Tuesday's semi-final first-leg, Seluk spoke to The Mirror about the curse and admitted that the time had come to move on.

Claiming to speak on behalf of his former client, Seluk stated: "I want to apologise for this matter. I think it is time for this bitterness to stop – and I know that Yaya feels the same because he wishes nothing but success for City.

"I can say that the spell has now been lifted by the shamans – and that I think City will win the Champions League under Pep.

"They have a good chance of winning it this year. But whatever happens they will definitely win it in the next three years."

Yaya Toure slams 'nonsense' curse

The idea that Seluk's comments were endorsed by Toure were quickly dismissed by the Ivorian, who currently works as an academy coach at Tottenham.

The 39-year-old blasted talk of an African curse as 'nonsense', pointing out that the stereotype was lazy and harmful in a Twitter post on Monday afternoon.

"My former agent is being quoted by the media about a ‘curse’. Please don’t associate me with this nonsense and lazy stereotypes about African curses," wrote Toure.

Will Man City finally lift the Champions League this season?

With all talk of a curse now seemingly put to bed, the question remains whether City can finally go one better than in the 2020/21 campaign, where they were narrowly defeated by Chelsea in the final.

The data gurus over at FiveThirtyEight currently make Guardiola's side the overwhelming favourites to get their hands on the trophy at Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul on June 10th, giving the reigning Premier League champions a 51% chance of success.

Time will tell if City can, at last, put an end to their Champions League misery.