Guardiola says no to Italy as Maldini moves onto Plan B | OneFootball

Reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport, Sky Sport Italia and various other outlets claim that Pep Guardiola has turned down the opportunity to become the next head coach of the Italy national team, which leaves FIGC technical director Paolo Maldini looking at his list of alternative options.

Gazzetta: Guardiola rejects chance to become Italy national team head coach

Guardiola had been among the dream candidates to take over as head coach of a new-look Italy national team set-up following the appointment of Maldini as technical director and Leonardo as his advisor.

Maldini and Leonardo flew over to Barcelona to hold talks with Guardiola last weekend and spoke publicly about the matter during a meeting of the Lega Serie A assembly on Thursday.

Maldini said that it would be ‘ideal’ to have a new head coach in place by the end of the week, but hinted that it might take a little longer to land the coach they truly want, which is understood to have been Guardiola. Maldini also admitted that they had spoken to Carlo Ancelotti before approaching the Spaniard.

“The ideal would be to have the coach by the end of this week, but perhaps even more ideal would be to wait for the person we really want,” Maldini said on Thursday. “There is a certain hurry, but not a hasty one.

BERGAMO, ITALY – FEBRUARY 16: AC Milan Sporting Strategy & Development Director Paolo Maldini and AC Milan Club Sporting Director Leonardo De Araujo before the Serie A match between Atalanta BC and AC Milan at Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia on February 16, 2019 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

“We cannot deny that we also spoke to Carlo Ancelotti before talking to Pep, and it felt only right to start with those we considered to be the best in the world. So we needed to get a general idea of their availability.”

There were always concerns regarding Guardiola’s candidacy, though, especially when it was revealed that he was seeking a salary of €20m to take over as Italy national team head coach. Giovanni Malagò recently confessed that Italy would make salary exceptions for coaches of a certain level, but anything above the €10m-per-year mark was always going to be too much for the FIGC.

Aside from the salary issue, it was also always going to be a challenge convincing Guardiola to step immediately back into management following a 10-year spell in the Premier League with Manchester City. There have been suggestions that he favoured the idea of taking a break to spend time with his family.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – MAY 24: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, reacts as a montage of his time at Manchester City is played on the LED screen inside the stadium following the Premier League match between Manchester City and Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on May 24, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Now, according to reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, Guardiola has informed the Italy delegation that he will not be taking over as head coach.

The Pink Paper reports that the call came in late in the night, that he was seriously considering the possibility of taking over as head coach, but that the project is not the best fit for Guardiola at this stage of his career.

La Gazzetta dello Sport suggests that if Guardiola were to take over in a new role, he would have to be fully committed to a project that sees him at work and ideally on the training pitch on a daily basis, while taking over as Italy head coach would see him rely on a greater network of scouts, coaches and delegates.

BURNLEY, ENGLAND – APRIL 22: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match between Burnley and Manchester City at Turf Moor on April 22, 2026 in Burnley, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Maldini and Leoanrdo also spoke of this new project potentially taking eight to 10 years to bringItaly back to where it wants to be on the global stage, and this is an unrealistic timeline for Guardiola at this stage of his career.

This leaves Italy, Maldini and Leonardo studying a list of potential alternatives, and as things stand, Andrea Pirlo is the next candidate that the delegation are expected to turn to.