Gündogan is now a totemic figure in City’s journey towards domination
I t might have felt slightly too good to be true for Ilkay Gündogan when, in the 71st minute of the FA Cup final, he gobbled up a rebound to beat David de Gea for the third time that afternoon. He wheeled away anyway but the flag went up immediately and there were no complaints from the scorer, who smiled knowingly and could reflect that he had not quite returned quickly enough from an offside position.
Stan Mortensen’s record as the only player to complete a hat-trick in this fixture at Wembley was preserved and it was one of those rare moments, in recent months, when Gündogan’s timing had erred from perfection.
Everything else has met the moment and there is something poetic about the transformation of Pep Guardiola’s first signing into the standard bearer who will, if Internazionale do not find a recipe that has eluded everyone else, lead Manchester City to the treble. The risk seemed pronounced when Gündogan, stricken by a dislocated kneecap at the time, arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2016 but all parties are now a humid Istanbul night away from reaping the ultimate reward.
Should they do so then the £20m fee City paid for him may, even allowing for inflation over the past seven years, go down among the most spectacular modern-day bargains. Gündogan was 25 when the deal went through, the best years of his footballing life patently ahead of him. He had already lost a year to a back injury and, when that knee issue was followed by a torn cruciate ligament in his 16th game for City, the long-term absences were mounting up. Injuries could easily have defined Gündogan; instead, he has emerged as a totemic figure in the more palatable side of the club’s journey towards all‑consuming domination.
It was Gündogan who