Pep Guardiola\u2019s decision to leave Manchester City after a decade will force a recalculation across the game. His time at the Etihad has seen City dominate English soccer; the club later became the first in England to win four league titles in a row, and Guardiola\u2019s 2022\u201323 treble matched Manchester United\u2019s 1998\u201399 success.<\/p>\n
This season, widely reported to be his last before City appoint former assistant coach and ex-Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca, Guardiola has already delivered a domestic cup double. It could become a domestic treble if they can snatch the Premier League title from Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Guardiola has previously spoken of a desire to manage a national team. \u201cIn our lives we have dreams of what we\u2019d like to do in the future, but it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Guardiola said at the time. “I would like to play a World Cup and a European Championship. I would like to live that situation. When I see the World Cup, I think I would like to be there. I had just one chance to do it as a player [in 1994]. In eight, 12, 14 years maybe it could happen. It\u2019s just a dream I have as a manager and a person. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn\u2019t.” He was more cautious in 2024: \u201cWhat I’m not going to do is leave Manchester City and go to another country. I wouldn\u2019t have the energy to do so.\u201d When asked specifically about Spain eight years ago he said he thought it was \u201cnot going to happen,\u201d so that option remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
Club and national options line up differently. Paris Saint-Germain could be possible if Luis Enrique moves on; Enrique has ended PSG\u2019s Champions League hoodoo and Guardiola would have the chance to become the first manager to win the European Cup with three clubs, having already won it with two alongside Enrique, Jupp Heynckes, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Ernst Happel, Jos\u00e9 Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti.<\/p>\n
Spain would be the most obvious national role given his playing history of 47 caps and captaining Spain to Olympic gold in 1992. Italy presents another attractive project after missing a third straight World Cup in 2026; Guardiola also played for Brescia and Roma. England is plausible in the longer term while Thomas Tuchel\u2019s contract runs to after Euro 2028. Mexico, where El Tri have endured seven round-of-16 exits in the last eight tournaments and have not reached a quarterfinal in 40 years, is another option; Javier Aguirre is currently in his third spell. The United Arab Emirates could offer a developmental brief: the country has not reached a World Cup since 1990 and missed chances to qualify for 2026 against Qatar and Iraq.<\/p>\n
Finally, Guardiola has shown he values time away from the game. When burnt out at Barcelona he took a year-long sabbatical living on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side and said he loved having a relatively normal life away from Europe\u2019s spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola’s next move could be Spain, PSG, Italy, England, Mexico, UAE or a sabbatical. Longer break<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,1056,1031],"tags":[1693,1694],"class_list":["post-13913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-man-city","category-paris-saint-germain","tag-managerial-future","tag-national-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}