{"id":567351,"date":"2026-07-30T18:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567351\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:52:15","slug":"after-world-cup-chaos-manchester-citys-josko-gvardiol-in-hong-kong-targeting-key-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567351\/","title":{"rendered":"After World Cup chaos, Manchester City\u2019s Josko Gvardiol in Hong Kong targeting key role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">After drawing a mental line under the \u201cchaotic\u201d end to his World Cup, Josko Gvardiol has turned his focus to the \u201cfight\u201d to be a key figure in Manchester City\u2019s brand new Enzo Maresca-led era, a process the defender is beginning in \u201cbeautiful\u201d Hong Kong this week.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Signed in 2023 shortly after Maresca left his Etihad Stadium coaching post to take over at Leicester City, Gvardiol will play under the Italian manager for the first time when the 10-time English champions face Inter Milan at Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 24-year-old, who had a goal controversially chalked off in the dying seconds of Croatia\u2019s 2-1 last-32 World Cup defeat by Portugal earlier this month, last week signed a new five-year City contract, a deal that was in the making before ex-Chelsea boss Maresca was handed the unenviable task of trying to follow Pep Guardiola\u2019s outstanding decade-long body of work.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cEvery time a new manager comes you need to fight for your position, and show yourself in the best light,\u201d Gvardiol told the South China Morning Post.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting, and something different. In training over the past three days we\u2019ve been building from the back, so as a player who likes the ball at my feet, I really enjoy it. I\u2019m ready to fight in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Josko Gvardiol (4) scores a goal against Portugal that was later disallowed by VAR at the World Cup. Photo: AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3e606ae8-29f0-4c37-a429-cf8658c7234d_7bcf0a4f.jpg\" title=\"Josko Gvardiol (4) scores a goal against Portugal that was later disallowed by VAR at the World Cup. Photo: AP\"\/>Josko Gvardiol (4) scores a goal against Portugal that was later disallowed by VAR at the World Cup. Photo: AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The ongoing pre-season will accelerate Gvardiol\u2019s return to peak health following a broken shinbone that sidelined him for most of the second half of last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After drawing a mental line under the \u201cchaotic\u201d end to his World Cup, Josko Gvardiol has turned his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4026,42611,4488,39244,174235,106365,203105,3448,85,120875,46,44823,256746,119466,172,2617,17673,105],"class_list":["post-567351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-champions-league","tag-croatia","tag-ederson","tag-enzo-maresca","tag-etihad-stadium","tag-hong-kong","tag-il","tag-inter-milan","tag-israel","tag-john-stones","tag-josko-gvardiol","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-liverpool","tag-manchester-city","tag-portugal","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}