Pep Guardiola has opened the door to a reconciliation with Joao Cancelo after confirming the Portuguese defender is training with Manchester City.

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Article continues below

• Manager opens door to reconciliation
• Defender back from Barca loan
• He left City in 2023 after furious spat

• Table of Contents

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Cancelo is still under contract at City until 2027, despite not playing for them since January 2023 after falling out with Guardiola. He spent the last season on loan at Barcelona, having spent the latter half of the 2022-23 campaign with Bayern Munich. And he has been working alongside his former team-mates since returning from Portugal duty.

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• WHAT GUARDIOLA SAID

  "He's training with us. We will see, maybe he'll stay, maybe go on loan. I don't know yet. He's training with us, behaving really well in the training sessions. He loves to play football. We will see," Guardiola told a press conference. Asked specifically whether Cancelo could remain with City for the season, he added: "It could happen, yeah."

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Cancelo was one of City's best performing players in the Premier League title wins of 2020-21 and 2021-22 but his relationship with the coach soured after he was dropped from the starting line-up after the World Cup.

  According to , the Portuguese put on headphones and started listening to music during one of Guardiola's pre-match team talks. Soon after, the coach said to sporting director Txiki Begiristain: "Cancelo better be gone by the end of the transfer window for the good of the team."

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• DID YOU KNOW?

  Cancelo made a good start to his loan spell with Barcelona but made high-profile errors in their biggest games of the season, in the defeats by Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.

Tags: Futebol
Category: News