Manchester City’s treble-winning manager Pep Guardiola is reportedly departing when his current deal expires in 2025.
Once he hits the open market, he will become the most coveted football management free agent since…Pep Guardiola in 2012.
At 52 years old, the man who brought the Champions League trophy to the Etihad for the first time is lightyears from retirement. And with two years remaining until his time in Manchester concludes, speculation about his future will take on a life of its own in coming years.
So it begs the question, where to next for the Spaniard? Here are some way too early predictions around where football’s greatest manager could end up.
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Pep Guardiola future: Where could City’s manager go next?
Spain?
Having conquered all before him in club football, a step up to the international game could potentially be on the cards. While Catalonian at heart, Pep Guardiola’s roots with the Spanish national team run deep, having represented his home nation 47 times over 9 years.
Like most modern sides, this current Spain outfit have been formed in the mould of Guardiola’s dominant Barcelona sides – possession-dominant, incisive with the ball, high pressing.
If Pep were to get his hands on a side featuring a midfield core Pedri, Gavi, Dani Olmo, and Champions League final goal scorer Rodri, and promising, if inconsistent attackers, Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, and Marco Asensio, Spain would shift instantly from underwhelming let downs to tournament favourites.
Paris Saint-Germain?
Every super team needs a supercoach. Every failing super team desperately needs a super coach. Since the QSI took ownership of the Parisian club in 2011, PSG have wiped the floor with every domestic opponent daring to stand in their way. On the European front, however, their shortcomings are glaringly obvious.
Only twice since 2011 has PSG progressed beyond the semi-finals of the Champions League, an embarrassing record for a club with their financial strength. Pep Guardiola would be walking into a PSG dressing room without Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and most likely Neymar. Yet, having already joined one state-backed European giant, would anyone put it past the Spaniard to join another and deliver the Champions League trophy to the Parc des Princes.
Barcelona?
Could a homecoming be on the cards? As a player and a manager, Pep Guardiola grew synonymous with Catalonian success, collecting 9 La Liga titles and 3 Champions League crowns across both his spells at the club.
Current manager Xavi, former dux at the school of Guardiola, has done an exceptional job so far, delivering the clubs first Messi-less league title since 1998-1999. But even he would admit the gulf between him and Pep is substantial.
Barcelona’s economic turmoil is no secret, and with debt flooding the walls at the Camp Nou it would be a miracle if the club’s hierarchy could drag Guardiola back to the city where he made his name, and history. But some people will do anything for love. Maybe Barcelona hit Pep’s romantic soft spot and convince him to re-join for a smaller deal then he’d collect elsewhere and transform a young, exciting Barcelona side into another unstoppable force of European football.
Manchester City?
Would it be any shock if Pep continued his exceptional work at Manchester City for another season or two beyond 2025? I don’t think so. At this current, post-treble claiming juncture, City’s squad is ageing – 6 are over 30, another 3 are 29. A summer refresh, something former cross town colossal Sir Alex Ferguson was famed for, could breathe fresh new life into City.
By the time 2025 rolls around, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, and Julian Alvarez will be firing in their mid 20s, Rico Lewis’ development would have continued steadily, and Rodri, Jack Grealish, Ederson, and Ruben Dias will be entering their primes.
Pep has already spent more time in Manchester than any other city during his esteemed managerial career. Nothing exemplifies this better than the Stone Island he is often doused in as he prowls the touchline. In 2025 he’d have spent almost a decade at the Etihad, he may just wind-up thinking, ‘eh, a season or two more can’t hurt.’
