Guardiola could take 15-year break after leaving Man City

Pep Guardiola insists he is still planning to take a break from coaching, which could be as long as 15 years, after he leaves Manchester City.

Guardiola has enjoyed stunning success throughout his nine years at City, winning 18 trophies, including six Premier League titles, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Overall, he has taken charge of 533 games at City, more than he did at Barcelona (235) and Bayern Munich (162) combined, while winning 376 of those matches.

But Guardiola’s side finished last term without any of the four major trophies in their grasp, for the first time since the Spaniard’s first campaign in 2016-17.

The 54-year-old signed a two-year contract extension with City in November, extending his time in charge through to 2027.

It is not yet clear when Guardiola plans to step away from the Etihad Stadium, but he has no intention of changing his plans for a sabbatical when that time comes.

“I know that after this stage with City, I’m going to stop, that’s for sure. It’s decided, more than decided,” he told GQ Spain.

“I don’t know how long I’ll stop for, a year, two years, three years, five, 10, 15, I don’t know. But I will leave after this spell with City because I need to stop and focus on myself, on my body.

“I’ve spent four or five months this year in every away stadium with the crowd chanting, ‘You’ll be sacked in the morning. They’re going to fire you’.

“There’s no other profession, architect, teacher, doctor, journalist… where 60,000 people ask you to lose your job.

“When you win six Premier Leagues, there comes a time when you go down. It’s human nature. It’s a process that had to happen, it happens, it took longer to happen, and when it did, it went deeper than we could have imagined.”

#OnThisDay in 2016, we unveiled @PepTeam as our new manager!

An unforgettable nine years! pic.twitter.com/iAxSzyWfQ2

— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 3, 2025

City had won four Premier League titles in a row before last term, but a mid-season drop in form saw them eventually finish 13 points behind champions Liverpool.

They were also knocked out of the Champions League at the play-off stage, their earliest exit under Guardiola in the competition, while they were beaten in the FA Cup final by Crystal Palace.

However, Guardiola does not see 2024-25 as a failure.

“It hasn’t been that bad,” he said. “In the end, we reached the final of the FA Cup and finished third; we didn’t finish 12th!

“In hindsight, we’ll see that it hasn’t been such a bad season. But we did go many months without winning a game.

“We went 13 or 14 games without a win, and that was … it had never happened before. But it puts you in your place.

“Even when I was winning, I didn’t feel we were anything special. Now that we haven’t won, I don’t feel like a failure.

“Speaking on behalf of Manchester City, it has been very healthy for us. Because success can confuse you.

“It hasn’t confused us for many years, but this year the players have been injured a lot. I think it will be very good for the next five or 10 years. And next year, we’ll do better.”

City begin the 2025-26 campaign at Wolves on August 16.