Man City players ‘owe’ Champions League title to Sheikh Mansour, says Kyle Walker

The Man City defender believes owner Sheikh Mansour’s £1.5 billion investment across 15 years warrants a European title

Richard Jolly
Tuesday 16 May 2023 14:48 BST
Comments
Manchester City's English defender Kyle Walker reacts
Manchester City's English defender Kyle Walker reacts (AFP via Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Kyle Walker believes Manchester City’s players owe it to Sheikh Mansour to win the Champions League.

City host Real Madrid in the second leg of the semi-final after drawing 1-1 in the Bernabeu last week, still looking for a first European trophy since their 2008 takeover.

Owner Sheikh Mansour has invested around £1.5 billion in the club in the last 15 years and Walker, one of a host of expensive signings, feels City can still be overshadowed by their neighbours Manchester United until they emulate them by becoming champions of Europe.

The right-back said: “You have to just look over the road at Manchester United and what they have accomplished and when we get compared to that team they won countless titles.

“We have done five [Premier League titles] in six years if we can cross the line on this one, which still isn’t over, but the club is missing that one [the Champions League] and the owners and the amount of money they have pumped in and the investment they have done we owe that to them.”

United have won the European Cup three times, including in 1999 when they did the treble of the Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup that City hope to accomplish now.

City are in their fourth Champions League semi-final and have reached one final, losing 1-0 to Chelsea in Porto in 2021.

And Walker added: “To get to the Champions League final against Chelsea and not perform as well as we can, we owe that to ourselves and get some revenge because we know that was below par on that day.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in