- Txiki Begiristain will reportedly leave Manchester City at the end of the season.
- The veteran football director has a close relationship with Pep Guardiola
- LISTEN NOW: It’s all starting!available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
Renowned Manchester City sporting director Txiki Begiristain will leave the club at the end of the season.
Begiristain was an integral part of Pep Guardiola’s appointment in 2016 and his working relationship with the manager has seen City dominate the Premier League and win the treble.
Begiristain, who is expected to retire after turning 60 in August, has been the mastermind behind an overwhelmingly positive transfer business since joining the club in 2012. Girona’s Quique Cárcel is believed to be in the frame for the role as City embark on a new era.
Mail Sport revealed last summer that the former Barcelona winger’s time at the helm of the club was coming to an end and that his departure would be linked to the future of Guardiola himself.
Begiristain’s departure plan was to ensure that he did not directly coincide with Guardiola’s departure, but rather arrived at around the same time.
Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain will leave the club at the end of this season.
He has a close relationship with Pep Guardiola, whom he met while playing for Barcelona.
That City are considering quickly appointing a new sporting director to work alongside them during a transfer period offers a potential buffer against that possibility and the opportunity for the successor to learn the ropes.
Guardiola’s contract expires at the end of the season and the Catalan usually communicates a decision on his future during the November international break.
Sources expected him to say goodbye next summer, but he has not yet confirmed his next steps.
He is a good friend of Pep Guardiola, since he was the sporting director who appointed him to Barcelona after the dismissal of Frank Rijkaard. They met for the first time as teammates at Barça.
“Txiki is the key to all this,” Guardiola said years after his appointment at City in 2016. “When no one else took a risk for me, when maybe 3 percent of the people at Barça believed in me, he was the one who insisted on my appointment to the first team. None of this would have been possible without him.”
He also said: “If Txiki worked for Chelsea, he probably would have called Chelsea,” Guardiola said in 2016.
He has been instrumental in bringing in some of their most iconic players, including Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, Rodri and Ederson.
Mail Sport exclusively reported in May that Guardiola is expected to leave the 2023 treble winners.
Begiristain advocated for Guardiola to become Barça coach and helped bring him to City
City will give Guardiola space to make a final decision on his future and want the most successful manager in their history to extend his stay after 15 major trophies, including his first Champions League.
When asked recently about his departure, he said: “I’m not going to talk about this issue.” “When it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”
During Begiristain’s time at the club, they won six Premier League titles, one Champions League, two FA Cups, six EFL Cups and the Club World Cup.
While other major figures, such as former director of football operations Omar Berrada, have come and gone; in his case taking over as City chief executive, Begiristain has been part of the fabric of the club for more than a decade.
