"I don't think for one second about anything related to football for the next years." Pep Guardiola said that after Sunday's final Premier League match of the season against Aston Villa — his last as Manchester City manager. Ten years. Done.
The Catalan leaves the Etihad having managed just three clubs in his career: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and City. All three ended in silverware. Whatever comes next, he isn't rushing into it.
So where does he actually go?
Spain is complicated. Guardiola earned 47 caps as a player, but his public advocacy for Catalan independence has put him at political odds with the Spanish football establishment for years. That door isn't obviously open.
Brazil has come up before — and Guardiola has spoken about it himself — but Carlo Ancelotti just signed a contract extension running through the 2030 World Cup. Unless something goes badly wrong in South America, that job isn't available.
England, though? That actually makes sense. Guardiola has spent the last decade living and working in the country, building relationships with Premier League players he'd inherit in a national squad. The FA went with Thomas Tuchel for the 2026 World Cup cycle, but after that? The landscape could look very different.
After leaving Barcelona, Guardiola took a sabbatical before eventually resurfacing at Bayern. The pattern appears to be repeating — rest first, then return. The question is what he returns to. England's odds of landing him as manager would be worth watching as the 2026 tournament approaches and Tuchel's position becomes clearer based on results.
No plan, but history offers clues
"I need to rest, I need to reflect, I need to see what happened in my 17, 18 years," Guardiola said. That's not someone with a next move lined up.
But managers of his profile don't stay out of the game indefinitely. A national team job — lower pressure than club management, still elite — fits the profile of someone who has spent nearly two decades in the grind of weekly football. England suits that bill more than most. Whether the FA can sell him on it when the time comes is another matter entirely.
