Guardiola set to leave Manchester City after Sunday

Guardiola confirms – Pep Guardiola has confirmed he will leave Manchester City after a final Premier League match against Aston Villa on Sunday. With a further year left on his contract, the move ends his 10-year spell that delivered six Premier League titles, the Champions League

MANCHESTER, England — Pep Guardiola ended the waiting on Friday in the bluntest way possible. After years in which Manchester City fans could picture him staying, he confirmed he is leaving the club, bringing to a close a 10-year run that remade the team and reshaped English football.

Guardiola will take charge of his final match against Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday. He still had a further year left on his Manchester City contract, but he said the decision feels like something that has to happen now.

“Don’t ask me the reasons I’m leaving. There is no reason, but deep inside, I know it’s my time,” Guardiola said. “Nothing is eternal, if it was, I would be here. Eternal will be the feeling, the people, the memories, the love I have for my Manchester City.”

City said Guardiola will take up a role as global ambassador. The club’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, framed the exit as both a personal and football-wide turning point. “The unique approach that he brings to his coaching has allowed him to constantly challenge the accepted truths of our game. It is the reason that in the last 10 years. he has not only made Manchester City better — he has also made football better. ” Al Mubarak said. He added that it was the “right answer” for Guardiola to walk away now.

That “right answer” arrives with trophies still in the cupboard. Since Guardiola joined City in the summer of 2016. he led the Abu Dhabi-backed side to six Premier League titles and the Champions League for the first time in 2023. In total. he won 17 major trophies. including a domestic double this season of the English League Cup and the FA Cup.

City also marked Guardiola’s departure against a backdrop of standards that became almost impossible to maintain. The club was the first team to win four-straight English league titles. and the first to amass 100 points in a single season in 2018. The following year. City became the first team to win the domestic treble of the league. FA Cup and League Cup in the same season.

But 2023 is the moment Guardiola and City still point to when people talk about a dynasty’s peak: the ultimate treble. City won the league, Champions League and FA Cup in 2023, matching Manchester United’s feat from more than 20 years earlier in 1999.

The football he brought to England was as distinctive as the trophies. Guardiola’s teams leaned into a possession-based approach that began with playing the ball out from the goalkeeper or defense. a style that spread well beyond the club. It ended up being mimicked across the country. from kids’ teams at grassroots level to rival teams in the Premier League.

Even so, this is not the farewell of an uninterrupted march. While he has always been seen as one of the Premier League’s greats—rivaling Alex Ferguson—this is the first time in his coaching career that he has gone two seasons without being crowned league champion. City were also eliminated from the Champions League before the quarterfinal stage in each of the last two years.

And just as City prepared to move on, the lingering pressure around the club’s finances remained part of the story. Guardiola repeatedly had to defend City against allegations of financial breaches, with more than 100 charges still hanging over the club.

City was accused of providing misleading information about its finances over a nine-year period from 2009-18—a span in which it won three titles and signed some of the world’s best players. including Yaya Toure. Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne. One of those titles was won under Guardiola. City has always denied wrongdoing, and Guardiola said he was “fully convinced” the club was innocent.

In his farewell message to fans, he returned to the basics of what supporters saw every week: “We worked. We suffered. We fought. And we did things our own way. Our way.”

When City talked about what happens next, the focus quickly turned to a successor who already knows the building. Enzo Maresca—the former Chelsea manager who was previously assistant to Guardiola at City—is the favourite to take on the daunting task of filling Guardiola’s shoes after a decade of unprecedented dominance.

Guardiola’s departure also came with City’s own attempt to frame how his legacy should be judged. Ferran Sorriano, City’s chief executive, said Guardiola’s impact would be easier to measure over time. “Pep’s legacy is extraordinary and its true impact will be better assessed by Manchester City historians of the future. ” Sorriano said. “If there is something more difficult than winning, it is winning again. It requires incredible persistence, resilience and the humility to start again every year, with the same energy, again and again. This is what Pep did.”.

So on Sunday. Guardiola’s last match against Aston Villa will carry more than the usual weight of a season finale. It will be the moment City close a remarkable chapter—trophies. style. and all—while also stepping into a future that. for the first time in years. will have to prove it can reach those heights without him.

Pep Guardiola Manchester City Aston Villa Premier League Enzo Maresca Champions League League Cup FA Cup Khaldoon Al Mubarak Ferran Sorriano Abu Dhabi-backed