Manchester City have signed Germany midfielder İlkay Gündoğan from Borussia Dortmund for a reported fee of €25.8m. UEFA.com provides some lesser-known detail about the 25-year-old.

Born: 24/10/1990
Honours
• Bundesliga: 2012
• German Cup: 2012
• UEFA Champions League runner-up: 2013

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  • Gündoğan’s family moved to Germany from Turkey in the 1970s when his grandfather started working as a miner. The player was born in Gelsenkirchen and was part of the Schalke academy at an early age. “It was a dream playing for Schalke, but for it to be over so quickly was tough to swallow,” he said.
  • He returned to home-town club Gelsenkirchen-Hessler 06 after being dropped by Schalke. The club offered him a return many years later but Gündoğan rejected it.
  • He instead joined Nürnberg from Bochum’s second team in 2009 and was mostly deployed as a wide midfielder during his two years in Franconia. He developed in a central role under Jürgen Klopp at Dortmund.
  • “I came to the conclusion that playing wide wasn’t my strength,” said Gündoğan after becoming a regular at BVB. “I feel fine playing as a defensive or central midfielder, but I also believe that I can hold my own as a playmaker.”
  • Gündoğan improved rapidly during 2012/13, when Dortmund reached the UEFA Champions League final. A smart, educated player, he learned to work hard on his own game and showed admirable patience having experienced various setbacks early in his career.
  • The 25-year-old is said to be a big fan of noon naps before matches, and is also known to show great attention to detail when preparing for upcoming opponents. Alert and eager to learn during video analysis sessions, he looks to be the perfect student for incoming City manager Josep Guardiola.
  • It is not hard to work out why Guardiola hand-picked Gündoğan as his first City acquisition: he excels in possession-based teams and can dictate a side’s tempo.
  • Gündoğan has been injury-prone in recent years, missing the 2014 FIFA World Cup with a back injury. He is also out of UEFA EURO 2016 due to a knee problem, meaning City are unlikely to see the best of him until 2017.

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