MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Pep Guardiola’s record-breaking, 10-year tenure at Manchester City might be coming to a close, according to reports in the British media.
City wouldn’t comment on stories from outlets including national broadcaster the BBC and the Daily Mail that Guardiola is expected to leave the club at the end of this season. He has a year left on his contract.
Enzo Maresca, the former Chelsea manager who was previously assistant to Guardiola
at City, is the leading contender to take over, according to the BBC. There was no immediate response from Maresca’s representatives when contacted by The Associated Press.
Guardiola, who has won 17 major trophies at City since arriving in English soccer in 2016, has repeatedly been asked in recent weeks whether he would be staying at City beyond this season.
On Monday, he rolled his eyes when another question was posed about his future and answered: “I’ve said so many times, I have one more year.”
In overseeing the most successful period in City’s history in his decade in charge, Guardiola has spent longer at the club than he did at Barcelona (2008-12) and Bayern Munich (2013-16).
His biggest achievement at City has been winning the Premier League-Champions League-FA Cup treble in the 2022-23 season, emulating the feat of Manchester United in 1999.
Guardiola’s City team has won the Premier League six times and became the only team in the nearly 140-year history of English soccer to win four top-flight league titles in a row (2021-24), the first team to earn 100 points in a top-flight season (2017-18), and the first team to win the domestic treble of the league, FA Cup and League Cup in the same season (2018-19).
This season, City has won both the League Cup and FA Cup and is second behind Arsenal in the Premier League, needing to beat Bournemouth on Tuesday to keep the title race going until the final round on Sunday. City is five points behind Arsenal.
Guardiola has also changed the face of English soccer in general, bringing a style of football — a possession-based approach that started with playing the ball out from the goalkeeper or defense — that ended up being mimicked across the country, from kids’ teams at grassroots level to rival teams in the Premier League.
Asked Monday if he thought a stand at City’s Etihad Stadium should be named after him, Guardiola said: “The important thing in our lives is when you look back, you can say, ‘Wow.’ You can look with a big smile and (say) that was good."
“I am pretty sure,” he added, “most of the people who lived this time together can feel that.”
The final years of Guardiola’s time at City has been under something of a cloud, with the club currently involved in a huge legal case with the Premier League. City was charged by the league in February 2023 with more than 100 financial breaches, including providing misleading information about its sources of income.
The case was heard by an independent commission between September and December in 2024 but no verdict has been reached.
Punishment could be as extreme as expulsion from the top flight. City has always denied the charges and Guardiola has said he is “fully convinced that we will be innocent.”
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Douglas reported from Sundsvall, Sweden.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
