Other SportsManchester City: Guardiola eyes international job before retirement

Manchester City: Guardiola eyes international job before retirement

Pep Guardiola would like to manage a country at a major international tournament before he retires.

Guardiola has been the leading manager in club football over the past 15 years, winning 11 domestic league titles with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City as well as three Champions League trophies.

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His contract at City runs until the end of next season and, while he has not ruled out staying at the Etihad, he admits to fancying a crack at international management.

He told ESPN Brasil: “I would like to train a national team for a World Cup or a European Championship. I would like that.”

Asked if he had a particular country in mind, he added: “I don’t know who would want me. To work for a national team they have to want you, just like a club.”

The 53-year-old, who represented Spain at the 1994 World Cup, the European Championship in 2000 and captained his country to the gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, insists he never entered coaching with the aim of managing a team at a World Cup.

“I never thought about it like that,” he added.

“When I started in this I never thought about winning a league title or winning the Champions League. No. I thought, I have a job? Okay.

“I would like to have the experience of living through a World Cup, or a Euro or a Copa América, or whatever it is. I would like that.

“I don’t know when that would be, if that is five, 10, 15 years from now but I would like to have the experience of being a manager in a World Cup.”

Jon Fisher
Jon Fisher
Jon has over 20 years' experience in sports journalism having worked at the Press Association, Goal and Stats Perform, covering three World Cups, an Olympics and numerous other major sporting events.
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