Pep Guardiola lets himself be loved, but remains firm in his decision

BarcelonaAfter almost a decade as Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola decided to stop. "I know it's time," he said, without clarifying the reasons for a decision made with his heart, but also with his head. He still had a year left on his contract with the English club, but in his last renewal, he had already added a possible second course, which was a maneuver to gain time and peace of mind. He had been thinking about stopping for a while, but he didn't want to spend more than half a season with the press asking him if, as it would turn out, the last one would be his final campaign on the bench of a team with which he won up to six Premier Leagues and the first Champions League in the history of the "sky blue entity, among many other titles and records broken in a football as competitive as British. In total, he has won forty official trophies between Barça, Bayern Munich, and City.

The wear and tear caused by the daily demands of top-level club football, the passion for understanding football and applying his ideas to the end, as well as living so many years away from home – and seeing how some people who had accompanied him at City for so many years were returning home or starting new stages – led Guardiola to decide, as he himself said, to take "a time to rest." This is the main argument with which, after listening to the proposal from his friend Paolo Maldini, the sporting director who has been entrusted with the task of righting the course of the Italian national team, the Santpedor coach has declined to take the reins of Italy.

"I have no plans to coach for a while. Otherwise, I would stay here. I need to take a step back," he said after an emotional farewell with City. Despite everything, Guardiola wanted to value and consider the proposal that Maldini, personally, sent him along with his advisor Leonardo Nascimento de Araújo on a trip to Barcelona last weekend. Both have the mandate from the new president of the Italian Football Federation, Giovanni Malagò, to find a replacement for Gennaro Gattuso, who left the position after failing to qualify Italy for the World Cup, the third consecutive one in which the azzurri, four-time World Cup champions, have been left out.

Pep Guardiola was the main target and, without going into detailed salary negotiations, a long-term proposal was sent to him to take charge of the reconstruction of transalpine state football. On Tuesday, Malagò had already admitted on an Italian public radio program that it would be difficult to sign the Catalan coach, but stated that they were willing to make an economic effort. Guardiola was also offered facilities to develop his work as a coach from Barcelona, as among the coach's desires to stop was the wish to be able to return to Catalonia and dedicate more time to his family and his closest circle.

However, Guardiola, who as a footballer played for Italian teams such as Roma and Brescia, remains firm and convinced of his decision to rest from top-level football for a while. After meditating on it throughout this week, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported this Friday that the Catalan coach has declined the offer: "Thank you, I am honored, but right now I don't feel capable." He will continue, as announced by Manchester City after his farewell, linked with the City Football Group, taking on the role of global ambassador. The position will consist of providing technical advice to the group's clubs, working on specific projects and various collaborations.

Carlo Ancelotti was also one of the targets

Aware of the difficulty of hiring Guardiola -who, before his last renewal with City, had already been sounded out by the England national team-, the Italian Football Federation has also sounded out Carlo Ancelotti, who has been managing the Brazil national team since May 2025. "The ideal would be to appoint the coach this week, but even more so to wait for the person we really want. There is urgency, but, deep down, not so much. Guardiola? We can't give any news; you have identified one of the targets, but we have also spoken with Ancelotti. It seemed fair to start with the best in the world, but we need to check their real availability. When Italy calls, it's hard to say no," Maldini said on Thursday at the Serie A League Assembly.

Ancelotti, despite Brazil's setback in the World Cup – in which the canarinha was eliminated in the round of 16 against Norway–, has a contract until 2030 and his idea is to continue leading the reconstruction of Brazilian football, as reported by the main media outlets in the South American country. Other names gaining traction to take the reins of the Italian national team are Andrea Pirlo, Antonio Conte, and Roberto Mancini.