Man City guru Txiki Begiristain set to leave club at end of season

The director of football has been one of the architects of their huge success in the Abu Dhabi era

Pa Sport Staff
Wednesday 09 October 2024 02:37 EDT
Comments
Txiki Begiristain looks poised to leave his role at Man City
Txiki Begiristain looks poised to leave his role at Man City (PA Archive)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Txiki Begiristain is set to leave his position as director of football at Manchester City at the end of the season, according to reports.

Begiristain took on the role in October 2012, having been in the same position at Barcelona from 2003-10, and he was widely credited with luring compatriot Pep Guardiola to City four years later.

It was Begiristain who backed Guardiola in his managerial big break at Barcelona, with the pair striking up a close friendship as team-mates at the Catalan club in the early-to-mid-1990s.

Guardiola, who took charge of City in 2016, once remarked: “If Txiki worked for Chelsea, I would probably have called Chelsea.

“When nobody else would take a risk on me, when maybe three 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.”

While The Athletic has reported the 60-year-old Begiristain is expected to depart the club at the end of the 2024-25, City declined to comment when contacted by the PA news agency.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in