Manchester City manager says “I need to stop and focus on my body”
Pep Guardiola has confirmed he will take an extended break from coaching once his time at Manchester City ends.
The Spaniard joined City in 2016 after three years at Bayern Munich and has remained in the dug-out ever since. He plans to take an extended sabbatical after his current contract with the club expires in 2027.
“I know that after this stage with City I’m going to stop, that’s for sure,” said Guardiola. “It’s decided, more than decided.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll stop for, a year, two years, three years, five, ten, fifteen – I don’t know. But I will leave after this spell with City because I need to stop and focus on myself, on my body.”
The 54-year-old has become one of the most successful managers in Premier League history with 18 trophies since arriving in 2016, including six Premier League titles and a historic treble achieved only once before by the great Sir Alex Ferguson.
Guardiola signed a two-year extension in late 2023, committing to City until 2027, but has hinted multiple times over the past year that he is nearing the end of his cycle.
City endured a rare setback last season, finishing third in the Premier League and exiting the Champions League at the quarter-final stage. They also lost the FA Cup final and finished a campaign without silverware for the first time since the Spaniard’s first season eight years ago.
Guardiola said: “I’ve spent four or five months this year in every away stadium with the crowd chanting, ‘You’ll be sacked in the morning. They’re going to fire you’.
“There’s no other profession – architect, teacher, doctor, journalist – where 60,000 people ask you to lose your job.
“When you win six Premier Leagues, there comes a time when you go down. It’s human nature.
“It’s a process that had to happen, it happens. It took longer to happen, and when it did, it went deeper than we could have imagined.”
