April 12 – Man City players David Silva, Bacary Sagna, Fernando and Eliaquim Mangala warmed up for their Champions League second leg quarter final match-up with PSG with a few laps of the Etihad campus, in Nissan GT racing cars.
As part of Nissan’s activation of their club sponsorship the Manchester City players job swapped, becoming racing drivers for a day and being tutored by some of Nissan’s best GT Academy drivers.
Nissan research says that almost one in three children aged 9-13 years deem a footballer or racing driver to be the most exciting jobs in the world – 22% said that being a footballer would be their ultimate dream job.
Driving Nissan’s Juke NISMO RS the players took to the track with professional motorsport drivers Jann Mardenborough, Miguel Faisca, Ricardo Sanchez, Lucas Ordóñez for a car control session. For their part the racing drivers took part in a training session with City’s coaches and City legend Paul Dickov.
Mario Balotelli, who generally preferred driving (and crashing) his Ferrari, was apparently not invited back for a reprise of his skills.
The Dream Job Swap promotion Fernando and Mangala came through the semi-finals in Nissan’s on-track competition, with Mangala taking the trophy in a hard-fought final.
Portuguese Faisca won the football tests, perhaps to the embarrassment of Mardenborough who had been a junior player at Cardiff before switching to a motorsport career. The football tests involved a speed, dribbling and shooting contest.
Nissan Motors GB Marketing Director Chris Marsh, added: “Through our partnership with Manchester City Football Club, we’ve been able to bring to life some of the ultimate passions of our fans – football and driving.
“Being able to make some of the country’s most celebrated talent accessible to our fans through this activity is what makes this partnership so exciting.”
Watch the racing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcHgs5V_3j8&feature=youtu.be
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