Manchester City Boss travelled to his native city to speak at a rally in defence of Gaza
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola missed Friday’s pre-game press conference after travelling to deliver a speech on the Gaza conflict at a pro-Palestinian rally in Barcelona.
City’s coach has shown in the past he will not shy away from discussing political issues. He wore a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf on Thursday and spoke to 12,000 people in his native city.
“When I see a child in these past two years with these images on social media, on television, recording himself, pleading, ‘Where is my mother?’, among the rubble and he still doesn’t know it, I always think: ‘What must they be thinking?’ Guardiola said.
“And I think we have left them alone, abandoned. I always imagine them saying, ‘Where are you? Come help us’.
“And even now, we haven’t done it. Perhaps because those in power are cowards, because they basically send innocent young people to kill innocent people. That is what cowards do. Because they are in their homes, with heating when it’s cold and air conditioning when it’s hot.
“We must take a step forward. Simply being present alone means so much, so very, very much. What bombs cause, and what they want to cause, is silence, and for us to look the other way. That is their only goal: that we do not take a step forward. And this is what we must resist. We must simply not look the other way; we must get involved and participate.
“We stand before the world to show that, naturally, we are on the side of the weaker, who in this case is Palestine. But not Palestine alone, all causes. This is a statement for Palestine, and it is a statement for humanity.”
“We have left them alone, abandoned.”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wore a keffiyeh as he condemned global silence over the suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza during a charity event in Spain on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/ldXYITRgUR
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 30, 2026
Guardiola’s side face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday. It was assistant coach Pep Lijnders who stepped in to perform the head coach’s media duties.
Lijnders said: “The manager is good, as always, full of ambition and passion but it is a personal matter. He will arrive back here in Manchester today.”
