Despite the rain, thousands of fans celebrated the hat-trick achieved by Manchester City players back in their city on Monday. Champion of England on May 20, winner of the FA Cup on June 3, the Citizens added the first Champions League in their history on Saturday against Inter Milan (1-0). A feat that only their neighbor in red, United, had achieved in England until then, in 1999.
Returning Sunday morning by plane from Istanbul, most of the workforce had immediately taken another plane for an additional night of celebration in Ibiza. Despite a sleep that we guess is rare for four-eight hours and a postponement of the start of the festivities by thirty minutes due to a heavy downpour, Pep Guardiola and his players did not want to miss this meeting with their fans.
“How times have changed!” exclaimed Sarah Morris, a 27-year-old supporter, referring to all the years the Citizens lived in the shadow of the Red Devils. “It’s like a dream I could never have imagined,” she added. A dream made possible by the hundreds of millions of euros poured in by the club’s Emirati owners since their arrival in 2008.
“We didn’t want the sun, we wanted the rain”
With five titles in the last six seasons under Guardiola, City have left their mark on English football. Sometimes shirtless, always all smiles, the players, given a standing ovation by the crowd massed along the route, congratulated themselves by waddling to the music that accompanied the double-decker bus. He dropped them off in St Peter’s Square where thousands of fans were waiting for them, who had waited patiently in the rain.
Even Pep Guardiola, his jersey stuck to his body in the rain, indulged in haranguing the crowd with grand gestures, after enjoying a cigar all the same. Arrived on the scene, he had fun with the weather. “What a parade!” What an afternoon! We needed the best parade, with this rain, otherwise it’s not Manchester. We didn’t want the sun, we wanted the rain. So she was perfect,” he joked. Nor did the rain prevent the final fireworks of a historic season.