By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: FACup.
Pep Guardiola has officially announced he will step down as the Manchester City manager at the end of the 2025/2026 season.
Explaining his decision to step down, Guardiola insists there is no reason, other than knowing it’s the right time.
“This is a city built from work. From graft. You see it in the colour of the bricks. From people who clocked in early, stayed late. The factories. The Pankhursts. The unions. The music. Simply the Industrial Revolution and how this changed the world. And I think I grew to understand that, and my teams did too.”
Guardiola is set to take charge of Man City for the last time against Aston Villa.
In an official statement, the club said, “In honour of Guardiola’s impact, City’s newly developed north stand will be named after him and will be fully open for the first time for his last game in charge of the club.”
“The Catalan will continue his relationship with the City Football Group, by taking up a role as a Global Ambassador. The role will see him giving technical advice to the clubs in the group, working on specific projects and collaborations”.
Guardiola arrived at the Etihad Stadium in July 2016 and will leave having won 20 major trophies.
He signed an initial three-year contract with City in February 2016 to take over from Manuel Pellegrini for the start of the 2016-17 season.
Though he finished that campaign without a trophy for the first time in his career – and also went trophyless last season – his City side have dominated English football during his reign.
City are the only team to reach 100 points in a top-flight season – doing so in 2017-18, when they also set the record for the most goals scored in a Premier League campaign, with 106.
The former Spain international signed a two-year contract extension in November 2024, until the end of the 2026-27 season.
In 10 years at the helm, he has more than doubled the total number of major trophies this club has won in its history, dating all the way back to their first FA Cup in 1904. That’s an incredible statistic in itself, before you consider all of the records he’s broken in English football.
Overall, he won six Premier Leagues, one Champions League, three FA Cups, five League Cups and a Fifa Club World Cup.
Guardiola joined City after three seasons at Bayern Munich, where he won three consecutive Bundesliga titles and two German Cups.
He started his managerial career at Barcelona in 2008, shaping one of the best club sides ever – winning three straight La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues and two Copa del Reys before taking a year’s sabbatical following the 2011-12 season.
Defensive midfielder Guardiola spent most of his playing career at Barcelona, winning six La Liga titles, two Copa del Reys and the 1991-92 European Cup.
He captained Spain to gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and subsequently made 47 appearances for the senior national side. He retired from professional football in 2006.