Pep Guardiola reveals plans for next job after leaving Man City

  • Pep Guardiola expresses desire to coach at a World Cup
  • Man City boss has a contract at Etihad Stadium until 2025
  • Spain, England, Germany, Brazil and USA all plausible jobs
Pep Guardiola has spoken about life after Man City
Pep Guardiola has spoken about life after Man City / Mateusz Slodkowski/GettyImages
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Pep Guardiola has revealed he would like the chance to go into international management when he is no longer Manchester City boss, even opening himself up to leaving Europe altogether.

Guardiola has a contract with City until the summer of 2025, which would see him reach nine years at the club – more than twice as long as he was in charge at boyhood team Barcelona.

He also stated in November that he still has "energy" so there is no firm end date on his time in Manchester. But when it does finish, the Spaniard is looking further afield than club football.

"I don't know who wants me," he told ESPN.

"To work for a national team, they need to want you, like the clubs. When I started, I didn't think about winning the leagues, or the Champions League. I thought: 'If I have a job, that's fine'.

"I would like to have the experience of living in a World Cup, a European Championship, a Copa America, whatever. I would like to experience this. I don't know when, in five, ten, 15 years, but I would like to play in a World Cup as a coach."


Pep Guardiola's ambition is to coach at a World Cup
Pep Guardiola's ambition is to coach at a World Cup / Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/GettyImages

The obvious first port of call for 53-year-old Guardiola is home country Spain, who have failed to even get as far as the quarter-finals in any of the three World Cup tournaments since they won it in 2010. Their European Championship record since 2012 hasn't been much better either.

England might be another given how long Guardiola has been at City, calling Manchester home since 2016. Similar could be said for Germany after he worked at Bayern Munich, albeit for much less time. Both England and Germany might be grateful of a born winner in the future, with the former still trying to end an almost 60-year trophy drought and the latter badly underperforming since 2014.

Guardiola's mention of the Copa America is interesting too. Argentina or Brazil are realistically the only two nations in South America that would grab his interest. Brazil in particular haven't won the World Cup or even reached a final since 2002. By the time 2026 comes around, it will match their longest period without a World Cup triumph since their first trophy in 1958 – the current longest is the 24 years between Pele's generation of 1970 and Romario's team of 1994.

The Brazilian football federation (CBF) have also made no secret of their attraction to big-name coaches after very publicly courting Carlo Ancelotti before he signed a new Real Madrid contract.

Guardiola even has a close affinity with the United States, spending his year-long sabbatical in New York during the 2012/13 season. The US are far from a heavyweight in the global game, but the country remains ambitious and the next World Cup on home soil could serve as a catalyst for growth.


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