Football
Ian Holyman, France correspondent 8y

Samir Nasri: I left Manchester City for Sevilla to play every match

Samir Nasri has reiterated Pep Guardiola's desire to keep him at Manchester City this summer, but France legend Christophe Dugarry has claimed the Sevilla midfielder "could have done much more" with his career.

Nasri, 29, was impressive as Sevilla defeated Lyon 1-0 in Tuesday's Champions League game in Spain.

The former Arsenal midfielder made the season-long loan move to Andalucia in the summer, but says he could still have been playing for the Premier League leaders if he had listened to Guardiola.

"He wanted to keep me right up to the last minute, but it was a choice I wanted to make," Nasri, whose 2015-16 campaign was limited to just 12 Premier League appearances due to injury, told beIN Sports. "I wanted to play every match, every minute. That's something I had missed, because I love football.

"I just want to enjoy myself, to rediscover the pleasure of playing football. Last year, I was sidelined for six months. My objective today is simply to play well. I made a bold choice in coming to Sevilla."

Regardless of his form for the La Liga side, Nasri insisted he no longer harbours ambitions of representing his country having announced his international retirement in August 2014 after missing out on a place in France's World Cup squad.

"The French national team is not at the back of my mind. That's really the way I wanted it. It's something that I don't want anymore," Nasri, who won the last of his 41 senior caps in November 2013, said. "I really suffered with the French national team, particularly after Euro 2012. I'm not beyond reproach, I made my mistakes."

However, Dugarry -- a former World Cup and European Championship winner with France -- believes Nasri should have done more with his career.

"He's a remarkable player," Dugarry said on RMC. "He has shown it all too rarely. He's different to the others, very good in small spaces. He has a remarkable sense for the game. He manages to get himself in between the lines. He's capable of making a team play. He's able to take responsibility on the pitch.

"Having said that, he lost himself because of his character. It's not necessarily a fault, but above all, I think football, at a moment in time, wasn't his priority. His priority was to do everything that is around football. To enjoy himself, when you have a lot of money, when you're a star, all the things football allows you to have. It's important, but it's not the priority. The important thing is to play, to perform.

"He's had an honourable career, but at 29, he could have expected a lot more. I say that all the more easily because I think I wasted my career. I also perhaps forgot certain priorities."

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