- Txiki Begiristain is reportedly set to leave Man City at the end of the season
- The long-serving director of football has a close relationship with Pep Guardiola
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Manchester City’s long-serving director of football Txiki Begiristain is reportedly expected to leave the club at the end of the season.
Begiristain has been with the club since 2012 and overseen their ascension to becoming one of the world’s most successful football clubs.
He is a close friend of Pep Guardiola, having been the sporting director who appointed him at Barcelona after the sacking of Frank Rijkaard. They first met as team-mates at Barca.
‘Txiki is the key to all of this,’ Guardiola said years later on his appointment at City in 2016. ‘When nobody else would take a risk on me, when maybe 3 per cent of the people at Barca 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.
City have already reached an agreement with a replacement, who is expected to start work early next year as per The Athletic.
Man City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain is reportedly set to leave after this season
He has a close relationship with Pep Guardiola, who he first met playing at Barcelona
Begiristain’s decision to leave adds a layer of complexity to Guardiola’s own decision about his contract, which expires at the end of this season.
‘If Txiki worked for Chelsea, I would probably have called Chelsea,’ Guardiola said in 2016.
Mail Sport exclusively reported in May that Guardiola is expected to leave the 2023 Treble winners.
City will give Guardiola space to make a final decision on his future – and want the most successful boss in their history to extend his stay after 15 major trophies, including delivering a first Champions League.
Asked recently about leaving, he said: ‘I’m not going to talk about this subject. When it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.’
As reported by The Athletic, Begiristain was supposed to take his foot off the gas when he turned 55, but decided to carry on until the age of 60 as he was so engrossed in the challenge and working alongside Guardiola.
He turned 60 in August.
While his successor will take over early in 2025, Begiristain will continue to work as part of a six-month handover period.
Begiristain advocated for Guardiola to become Barca’s manager and helped bring him to City
During his time at the club, they have won six Premier League titles, a Champions League, two FA Cups, six EFL Cups, and the Club World Cup.
While other senior figures such as former chief football operations officer Omar Berrada have come and gone – in his case taking up the CEO role at City, Begiristain has been part of the club’s fabric for over a decade.
