‘Even God couldn’t stand him!’ - Joao Cancelo absolutely slammed for 'attitude and behaviour problem’ throughout career which led to Man City and Valencia exits

Cancelo, who arrived at Manchester City in August 2019 from Juventus in a €65 million (£56m/$70m) deal, initially thrived under the leadership of manager Pep Guardiola. Regarded as one of Europe's top full-backs, Cancelo played a pivotal role in City's success.

However, a noticeable shift occurred during the first half of last season when Guardiola began rotating his squad, sidelining the Portuguese defender. This change in status led to public discord between Cancelo and Guardiola, culminating in the Portuguese's loan spells at Bayern Munich and later Barcelona.

Journalist Lu Martín shed light on the situation, attributing Cancelo's exits to attitude and behaviour problems when not selected by managers throughout his career.

“We have explained it several times,” he said. “It’s a problem of attitude and behaviour. If there’s one thing Pep can’t stand it’s bad behaviour and being overweight. Cancelo’s behaviour was not the right one, although as a footballer he has tremendous quality. The same thing happened to him at Valencia. He didn’t leave because he didn’t play badly, he left because even God couldn’t stand him."

Cancelo is an undisputed starter at Barcelona and has already made 28 appearances across competitions this term. However, Martin asserted that things could quickly change if he is relegated to the bench by Xavi and prefers someone else.

"At Barca as long as he plays, there is no problem, but the day he stops playing his character will come out," he said. "As long as he doesn’t have competition that won’t happen, but at City it was different, there was a lot of quality there.”

Cancelo's reported attitude problem underscores the importance of professionalism and behaviour in football. While Cancelo possesses exceptional quality as a player, his alleged behavioural issues have evidently affected his career trajectory and relationships with managers. Nonetheless, he is enjoying his time in Spain and will be in action on Saturday against Getafe in a La Liga encounter.