Agent who said 'African curse' would stop Pep Guardiola winning Champions League claims 'nobody forgot'
The football agent who suggested an "African curse" would stop Pep Guardiola winning the Champions League has described being bombarded with messages to tell him he was right.
Dimitri Seluk, who hit out at the manager's treatment of Yaya Toure in 2018, added that he believes the whole continent had been willing Real Madrid to beat Manchester City on Wednesday night.
Seluk had first weighed in on Guardiola, with an eyebrow-raising prediction that "African shamans" were out to get him, after Toure, his then client, had declared he wanted to “bust the Guardiola myth”.
“God sees everything,” Seluk said immediately after Toure's departure from the club. “As a man who acted with Yaya, the legend of the club, which under different pretexts did not give the opportunity to go on the field. He turned all Africa against himself, many African fans turned away from Manchester City. And I’m sure that many African shamans in the future will not allow Guardiola to win the Champions League. This will be for Guardiola an African curse. Life will show whether I am right or not.”
Four years on, Seluk tells Telegraph Sport that he has received countless messages on his phone after City's dramatic semi-final exit that his forecast has proven correct. He said, however, that his only intention at the time was to point out that Guardiola was wrong to part ways with Toure. "I remember saying this many years ago," he said. "When I tell this, many people say 'now this looks like it has really happened.'
"I'm not really opposite Pep. He is a good coach.... [but] I know Africa supporters, one billion people, were opposite Pep."
Seluk said his initial thought after Real Madrid's 3-1 win against City was that "everybody forgot about me saying this". But after looking at his phone he saw "nobody forgot".
"From all countries in Africa, I received a lot of messages because everybody supports Real Madrid as they are opposite to Pep," he added. "Yaya did not question [Guardiola] but he gave a lot to the club. When he came, Manchester City only dreamed of playing in the Champions League. Yaya was from Barcelona. Normally a club like Manchester City would always invite legends from the club for the game, but of course nobody did anything last night - this is a problem. In life, if you do something opposite you will receive back what you do not do."
Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring, but City ended up losing 6-5 on aggregate after Rodrygo came on to turn the fixture with two goals, before Karim Benzema slotted home a penalty in extra-time.
Immediately after the match, fans commented on social media about Seluk's 2018 outburst following Toure's fractious exit from the club in 2018. The midfielder was a key player in two Premier League titles during a glittering start to his spell in England, but later saw his game-time reduced considerably under Guardiola.
