Manchester City have confirmed that Pep Guardiola will leave at the end of the season, bringing down the curtain on a 10-year spell that reshaped the club and ended with another trophy-laden campaign. Guardiola will depart after City's final-day game against Aston Villa on Sunday, with one year still left on his contract.
Guardiola leaves having won 20 trophies at City, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2023. Appointed in February 2016, he turned a club already built for success into a side that dominated English football for most of his tenure, while also delivering the European crown that had long eluded it.
“And what a time we have had together,” Guardiola said in his farewell message. “Don't ask me the reasons I'm leaving. There is no reason, but deep inside, I know it's my time.”
The departure comes after months of speculation about his future and after City completed a cup double in his 10th and final campaign. It also lands while the club waits for the outcome of an investigation into 115 charges of alleged breaches of the Premier League's financial rules, covering the period from 2009 to 2018. City deny all of the charges.
Guardiola said his connection to the club and the city would endure even as his role changes. “Nothing is eternal, if it was, I would be here. Eternal will be the feeling, the people, the memories, the love I have for my Manchester City,” he said.
He also pointed to the place itself as part of the bond. “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,” he said. “We worked. We suffered. We fought. And we did things our own way. Our way.”
City said Guardiola will continue his relationship with the City Football Group as a global ambassador, a role that will see him provide technical advice to clubs in the group and work on specific projects and collaborations. For a manager whose exit had been discussed for months, Sunday is set to close not just a season but an era that defined the modern club and left City waiting to see what comes next.
