What will Pep Guardiola do next? Five options for the departing Man City boss | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola is leaving Manchester City – so now what for one of the greatest to ever coach?

Guardiola is bringing down the curtain on a decade at City after the final game of the season, apparently handing the reins to Enzo Maresca.

There will be questions now over what the 55-year-old chooses to do next.

These are five options…

Club management

The first to acknowledge is that Guardiola will not jump into any job in any sector. Certainly not club management.

He had a sabbatical after stepping away from Barcelona, spending a year in New York City before heading to Bayern Munich in 2013. From Munich he went straight to Manchester, so Guardiola has been at it for 13 years straight. Which must be draining when you are as intense as Pep.

In any case, which club would he manage? Maybe one day he would go back to Barca but the Catalans are all set with Hansi Flick for now.

And Guardiola said himself that he won’t just turn up at another club: “I’m not going to manage another team,” he said in 2024. “I’m not talking about the long-term future but what I’m not going to do is leave Manchester City and go to another country to do the same thing as I am now.”

International management

In the next breath, Guardiola admitted he might be lured in to the international game.

Guardiola has been linked with the England and Brazil positions, but Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti have recently signed new contracts. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente also has an agreement until after Euro 2028.

Of course, one rotten World Cup campaign and any of those managers could be slung out.

Italy, though, are definitely looking for a new coach amid much soul-searching about the future of the Azzurri. Appointing a figurehead like Pep could make sense, and Guardiola has a strong bond with Italy having played for Brescia and Roma.

But they need a relatively swift appointment. And would Guardiola be satisfied with so little contact time with players? His style can’t be taught over a week every few months and he doesn’t seem the sort to compromise.

Sporting director or ambassadorial role

Pep could follow the leads of Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp by finding a job with a wider brief.

Wenger accepted an offer from FIFA, where he’s trying to ruin football with his daylight nonsense, while Klopp is overseeing Red Bull’s football operation.

A broader field, like that which enticed his two former Premier League foes, might suit Guardiola rather better than a sporting director role.

Those are some cushy gigs – all the power, none of the scrutiny – but can you imagine Guardiola delegating all responsibility for coaching? And think of the poor sod who would have Pep peering over his shoulder.

Politics

Pep has often boiled the piss of the ‘stick to football’ berks, recently speaking out on issues such as Palestine, Ukraine, and Donald Trump’s ICE goons.

It is not a new thing. Pep has always had a wider interest in the world beyond football since he was a player.

Inevitably, the issues closest to his heart are those closest to home in Catalonia.

Guardiola’s sister worked for both the Catalan and Spanish governments before being dismissed as an ambassador in 2017 around the suspension of Catalonia’s autonomy in the wake of a referendum on independence.

That was a cause Guardiola sought to further, and he was fined more than once for wearing a yellow ribbon in support of Catalan politicians arrested during the push for independence.

Indeed, shortly before he joined City, as a symbolic gesture in 2015, Guardiola ran for office as a pro-Catalan independence candidate in regional elections.

With more time on his hands, might he use his influence in the political sphere? Probably. But we don’t see an entire career shift in Guardiola’s immediate future.

Retirement

There is always the possibility that Guardiola decides to do f*** all. In which case, absolutely fair play to the bloke.

“I don’t know how long I’ll stop for,” he said last year when discussing the prospect of stepping away from City. “But I’m going to stop after this stage with City because I need to focus on myself.”

Pep’s devotion to his craft was said to be a factor in his recent divorce that ended an 11-year marriage and 30-year relationship with wife Cristina.

but a break could be “one, two, three, four, five years”.

Who could blame him if after a prolonged period of rest and recuperation that he decides he doesn’t need the hassle and chooses a slower pace?