Pep Guardiola has told ESPN that while he does not know if he will retire from coaching when he leaves Manchester City, he is “sure” he is going to take a break from management.
The 54-year-old’s nine-year City reign is comfortably the longest coaching spell of his career — he spent four years at Barcelona and three in charge of Bayern Munich — and he signed a two-year contract extension in November that is set to keep him at the Etihad Stadium until 2027. His contract was due to expire at the end of this season.
Guardiola has delivered unprecedented success since joining City in 2016. He has led the team to six Premier League titles and delivered a maiden Champions League triumph as part of their treble-winning campaign in 2022-23.
However, this season has been a trying one for Guardiola and City. They are 21 points behind Premier League champions Liverpool and are in the midst of a fight to qualify for the Champions League next season.
“I want people to remember me however they want,” Guardiola told ESPN Brasil as part of the second series of “Premier League Encounters” on Disney+. “After my contract with City, I’m going to stop. I’m sure. I don’t know if I’m going to retire, but I’m going to take a break. How I want to be remembered, I don’t know.
“All coaches want to win so we can have a memorable job, but I believe that the fans of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City had fun watching my teams play. I don’t think we should ever live thinking about whether we’re going to be remembered.
“When we die, our families cry for two or three days and then that’s it — you’re forgotten. In the careers of coaches, there are good and bad ones, the important thing is that the good ones are remembered for longer.
“I’ll tell you that the most important thing is not what people think of you, after all, our lives as footballers have been very good. There are new challenges as a coach, I don’t know what will happen in the future and in the end that doesn’t matter.”
Speaking ahead of City’s Premier League clash with Wolves on Friday, Guardiola stressed that he didn’t mean to suggest his time in Manchester was coming to an imminent end.
“Nooo! No, no, no I didn’t say I’m leaving now or at the end of the season. Well, if they sack me, yes,” he told Sky Sports.
“But I’m saying when I finish my time here, I don’t know in one year, two years, three years, four years, five years, six years — I don’t know — I will take a break. I won’t retire but I will take a break, for sure.”
City’s disastrous five-match losing streak in October and November saw them exit the Carabao Cup and effectively ended their Premier League title challenge.
Reflecting on what he describes as a “difficult” season, Guardiola admitted he could have made different decisions along the way.
“It was a year of great learning,” he told ESPN. “There is not just one reason why this year was difficult, there are many details, like wrong decisions made for me. So, it has been a year of great learning for me, personally.”
Guardiola’s side have somewhat recovered from their mid-season slump to where they now sit fourth in the table and will face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final on May 17.
The City boss said that while their slump was greater than he could have expected, he is proud of the legacy he is building at the club.
“People think we learn more from defeats than from victories. But I also think I learn from victories,” Guardiola said.
“I knew there would be a moment when we would fall, but we fell a lot. We didn’t expect to be so far, but we can’t win them all. What we did during 10, nine years was exceptional, but now we have to sit down and learn to try to understand what we need to produce in the future.”
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
