Ex-City star Gelson about Sheikh Mansour: ‘He is a top man, completely crazy about football’

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Usually Gelson Fernandes shines brighter than the sun, but now sadness is mingled with the face of happy nature. His FC Sion, the club of his youth, his heart club, has to go to second class. Gelson is there live when the Valais team goes down 4-2 on the Pontaise against Lausanne-Ouchy. “It hurts everyone who loves this club. Sion belongs in the Super League.”

And Lausanne-Ouchy? “They deserve it, they do a good job, smart transfers.” The people of Vaud owe their rise to their owner, multimillionaire Vartan Sirmakes. He has spent years pumping money into the club and now he is reaping the rewards.

Salary increase for Gelson

Fernandes knows what it means when a financially strong investor takes over a club. In the summer of 2008, he was there when Manchester City, then a gray mouse in the Premier League, was taken over by Sheikh Mansour from Abu Dhabi. “It came as a surprise to us at the time because the club had been bought a year earlier by the former Prime Minister of Thailand,” recalled Gelson. In the beginning you didn’t know what was going to happen.

But then the worries would have disappeared like snow in the sun. Because Sheikh Mansour has spoken to the players personally. Was there a pay rise right away? “Yes,” says Gelson with a grin. “But not because new owners came, but because I had a good first season.” The 67-time Swiss international is still impressed by meeting Mansour: “He is a top man, absolutely crazy about football. He told us that this club would become one of the best in the world. That he wants to build something. “

A billion for the treble?

15 years later, the Skyblues won the triple victory against Inter Milan on Saturday in the Champions League final. In all that time, the sheikh has spent nearly two billion on new players.

However, in the beginning it was not easy to build a strong team. In his first season under Mansour, Robinho, who comes from Real Madrid to the English northwest for 35 million euros, is the only transfer with international allure. “ManCity was not yet a brand at the time. Not a club where you go as a top player. That only changed when Pep Guardiola came along. He was the key to today’s success, “says Gelson, who transferred from FC Sion to the island in the summer of 2007 for 9.1 million.

The star coach gave City a DNA, transferred values ​​and gave a game idea. Under Guardiola, City became English champions five times. And will face blatant outsider Inter on Saturday before winning the Champions League for the first time.

Source : Blick