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.
Ange Postecoglou asked why VAR is not being questioned more by the English public after Stuart Attwell’s historic public announcement during Tottenham’s Car
By contributor By PA Sport StaffPedro Porro checks on team-mate Rodrigo Bentancur (Adam Davy/PA)Rodrigo Bentancur left the field on a stretcher after suffering
RODRIGO BENTANCUR was rushed to hospital after a sickening fall early on in Tottenham’s clash against Liverpool.The midfielder landed awkwardly after attempti
UK Athletics has been charged with corporate manslaughter over the death of a Paralympian who was hit on the head by a metal pole while preparing the London Wor