CITY SPECIAL Jesus is fighting to keep his Brazil place
GABRIEL Jesus enjoyed a pep talk from Brazilian great Ronaldo as he looks to get up and running in the World Cup.
The City striker failed to find the net as Brazil laboured to a 1-1 draw in their opening group game with Switzerland.
Jesus, whose friend accidentally leaked the team on Instagram days before the game, is facing pressure from Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino for his place in the starting XI leading the line.
But Brazil coach Tite has so far shown faith in the City youngster, asking him to captain the team in a World Cup warm-up game.
Another of his supporters is legendary striker Ronaldo, who enjoyed World Cup glory with Brazil in 1994 and 2002.
“I think he’s looking very good and he’s maturing fast,” was the verdict.
Jesus has made it clear he will cheer Firmino on if Tite does opt for a change for Brazil’s second game with Costa Rica this afternoon.
However, the Blues forward is not putting a limit on his ambitions as he spoke about what he wants from the tournament.
“I want to put my name in the history of Brazil. But we have to recognise our idols, the references,” he said.
“All of them are cheering for us also to have our names guarded [in the history books]. I don’t want to erase the name of anybody, I want to put ours there.” BENJAMIN Mendy has both Pep Guardiola – and the City boss’s wife – to thank for helping him sign for the Blues and settle at the club.
The France international was identified as a key signing for City last summer as Guardiola looked to bring in new full-backs.
Bacary Sagna, Aleks Kolarov, Gael Clichy and Pablo Zabaleta all left the club and more than £125m was spent to bring in Mendy, Danilo and Kyle Walker.
Mendy stood out in Monaco’s Champions League win over City in the 2016/17 campaign, enough for the coach to get his number.
But their conversations needed the helping hand of Cristina Serra, Guardiola’s wife, to make sure all of the French in the conversation was understandable.
“Of course, Pep is the kind of manager players always dream of playing for. But what I’ve learned about life from Pep has been more important than anything I’ve learned about football,” he said.
“When I was considering signing with Man City