- Txiki Begiristain will leave Manchester City at the end of the season
- The long-serving football director has a close relationship with Pep Guardiola
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Manchester City’s renowned sporting director Txiki Begiristain will leave the club at the end of the season.
Begiristain was integral to Pep Guardiola’s appointment in 2016 and his working relationship with the manager helped 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 the overwhelmingly positive transfer activity since joining the club in 2012. Girona’s Quique Carcel could be in line for the role as City enter a new era.
Mail Sport revealed last summer that the former Barcelona winger’s time was coming to an end and that his departure would be linked to Guardiola’s own future.
Begiristain’s departure plan was to ensure that it did not directly coincide with Guardiola’s departure, but would arrive around the same time.
Man City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain will leave the club after this season
He has a close relationship with Pep Guardiola, whom he first met at Barcelona
City’s desire to quickly appoint a new sporting director to work alongside him for a handover period provides a potential cushion for that possibility and the chance 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 expect him to retire next summer, but he has yet to confirm his next steps.
He is a close friend of Guardiola, as he was the sporting director who appointed him at Barcelona after the dismissal of Frank Rijkaard. They first met as teammates at Barca.
“Txiki is the key to all this,” Guardiola said years later upon his appointment at City in 2016. “When no one else wanted to take a risk with me, when maybe three percent of the people at Barcelona believed in me, he was the one who insisted on my appointment to the first team. Without him, none of this would have been possible.”
He also said: ‘If Txiki had worked for Chelsea, I would probably have called Chelsea,’ Guardiola said in 2016.’
He has been instrumental in bringing in some of their most iconic players such as 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 Barcelona manager and helped bring him to City
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 winning 15 major trophies, including a first Champions League win.
When recently asked if he would leave, he said: ‘I’m not going to talk about this subject. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.’
During Begiristain’s 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, he has taken on the role of CEO at City, but Begiristain has been part of the club for more than a decade.