‘I used to be a wonderkid for Man City – now I coach their largest rivals after failed profession’

Gai Assulin was once one of the most talked about wonderkids in the mid-2000s, but a wonderkid-turned-journeyman career ended with a whimper and he now coaches kids at a Premier League club

Imagine being from the back waters of nowhere special, and being told at the age of just 12 that you’re good enough to play football for Barcelona – and then being signed by the iconic club. And then being such a prospect that you graduate to the Barcelona B team, sign a new contract and get a £20m buy-out clause placed on your head.

Well, Gai Assulin was once one of the most talked about wonderkids in the mid-2000s, having graduated from the same youth academy as Lionel Messi.

The Israel-born now-35-year-old started his career in the youth ranks of Hapoel Haifa and Beitar Nes Tubruk before moving to the Catalan giants – but just before Pep Guardiola could make him a first team regular at the club, he left and signed for Manchester City.

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And just 16 years later, the once-highly regarded youngster who had the world at his feet, is now coaching the youth of today at rivals Man Utd. Gai’s Linkedin was recently updated to include a lenghty description and a new job title. The latter confirms that he is now an academy coach at Manchester United, alongside a photo of him at the club in a fully-branded tracksuit.

And of his skills now, he said: “As a former professional footballer with experience at top clubs in Europe, I bring a deep understanding of the game both on and off the pitch. Having navigated the highs and challenges of professional sports, I now dedicate my expertise to coaching, mentoring, and developing the next generation of football talent.”

Gai’s career, despite coming through the ranks alongside Thiago Alcantara and Jonathan dos Santos, as well as being good enough mates with Yaya Toure that he signed for City to play alongside him, never really hit the heights he was meant to.

He left Barcelona under a bit of a cloud, having fallen out with then-boss Luis Enrique who took over the B team from Guardiola. He said at the time: “I didn’t receive much playing time from Enrique. He wasn’t too interested in me playing for him. He didn’t trust me and didn’t give me credit, and this really hampered my self-confidence. When he finally let me play, it was in unimportant games.

“I don’t know whether his motivation was personal or professional. It seems to me that it was a combination of the two. In the few opportunities I did receive, I couldn’t do much to prove that I was worthy. If I didn’t take advantage of the few opportunities I did receive, then he would take me off the pitch. He had no patience for me and he barely spoke with me.”

Having moved to City, he never played a competitive game for the Premier League’s most controversial club, and was released two years later after a seven-game loan spell at Brighton – he was let go alongside Owen Hargreaves (remember him?).

He spent the rest of his career mainly in Spain, playing just two 25-game or more seasons at Racing Santandar and Mallorca, with a spell at Granada in between where he didn’t play at all.

He later went back to Israel in 2014, where he played six games for Hapoel Tel Aviv, before moving back to Spain for spell in Spain’s third tier at Sabadell – after a failed trial with Scottish club Rangers.

His career ended with spells in Kazakhstan at FC Kairat, then Romania at Politehnica Iasi, before spending his final year as a professional at Serie D club Crema in Italy. He also made just one appearance for the Israel national side in 2008 – before he stepped foot onto the pitch for Barcelona.

And now he’s taking all of that wild experience to Man Utd . . . although his “failed wonderkid” career is quite symptomatic of the club’s current struggles and never-ending slump.