The ‘Curse of the African Shaman’ and Pep Guardiola’s Triumph in Champions League 2022/2023 Season

CNN Indonesia

Sunday, 11 Jun 2023 09:15 WIB

Jakarta, CNNIndonesia —

The ‘Curse of the African shaman’ was once cited as one of the causes Pep Guardiola can’t win the title Liga Champions.

This started with the words of a player agent named Dimitri Seluk who had worked with Yaya Toure. Seluk was annoyed with Guardiola, who made his client sit on the bench more and then chose to leave.

As time went on, Seluk no longer held a grudge against Guardiola and stated that the Spaniard had a chance to win the Champions League this season.

“I’m sorry for this problem. I think it’s time to stop this bitterness, and I know Yaya feels the same way because he hopes for nothing but City’s success,” said Seluk quoted from Mirror.

“I can say that the curse has been lifted by the shamans and I think City can win the Champions League under Pep’s direction,” he continued a few days before the Man City vs Inter Milan match.

Previously, Seluk had stated that Guardiola’s decision to bench Toure was a mistake because the player from Ivory Coast is one of the quality players from Africa.

To the extent that Seluk brought up mystical matters in a statement after Man City lost to Chelsea in the 2020/2021 Champions League final.

“I’m sure many African shamans will not let Guardiola win the Champions League in the future. This will be an African curse for Guardiola. Time will tell whether what I say is true or not,” Seluk said two years ago.

Regarding Seluk’s words, Toure openly showed his anger. According to Toure, Seluk should not speak like that and offend African people.

“My ex-agent was cited by the media because of the ‘curse’. Please don’t associate me with vague and lazy stereotypes about the curse of Africa. The media…come on, change. This person does not represent me. Amplifying stereotypes is not right,” he said. Toure.

(nva/nva)