Guardiola to take break from football after Man City exit

The 54-year-old signed a two-year contract extension in November, keeping him at the Etihad until June 2027, which would be 11 years after he joined the club. It is by far the longest coaching spell of his career - he spent four years at Barcelona, for whom he also played, and three in charge of Bayern Munich.

The Catalan has spearheaded an unprecedented period of success for City, leading them to six Premier League titles and delivering a first Champions League crown as part of a treble in 2022/23, but this season has been tough. "After my contract with City, I'm going to stop. I'm sure," Guardiola told 'ESPN'. "I don't know if I'm going to retire, but I'm going to take a break. How I want to be remembered, I don't know.

"All coaches want to win so we can have a memorable job, but I believe that the fans of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City had fun watching my teams play. I don't think we should ever live thinking about whether we're going to be remembered. When we die, our families cry for two or three days, and then that's it - you're forgotten. In the careers of coaches, there are good and bad ones, the important thing is that the good ones are remembered for longer."

Fourth-placed City, who play Wolves on Friday, were favourites to wrap up a fifth straight Premier League title this season but suffered a dramatic slump. With four league games of the season to go they are 21 points behind champions Liverpool and locked in a fight to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Guardiola, whose team are through to a third successive FA Cup final, against Crystal Palace, said it had been a season of "great learning" and he had not expected City's decline to be so steep. "I knew there would be a moment when we would fall, but we fell a lot," he said. "We didn't expect to be so far, but we can't win them all.

"What we did during 10, nine years was exceptional, but now we have to sit down and learn to try to understand what we need to produce in the future." Guardiola said in December that he would not "take another team" after leaving City, though he left open the possibility of becoming a national coach.