Pep Guardiola has been out of the coaching game since May 2026, when he closed out his Manchester City FC tenure.
What is the next step for a coach who's won everywhere and won almost everything there is to win? This episode of The Blueprint has hosts John Baney and Trey Fillmore discussing the possibility, however realistic or far-fetched it might be, of Guardiola coming to America to resume his coaching career.
New York City FC is without a coach, Guardiola remains employed by City Football Group as a "global ambassador," and he recently visited NYCFC for one of its home matches.
The United States men's national team, meanwhile, is also about to be without a coach with Mauricio Pochettino heading to Manchester United FC, and reports already indicate that US Soccer intends to pursue Guardiola as a top target to replace Pochettino.
Would Pep ever really consider a move to New York City Football Club, or to the United States men's national team?
The enduring connection with City Football Group, and Guardiola's separate and unique personal connection to the city of New York, give NYCFC at least some semblance of a chance.
John and Trey go through NYCFC's coaching history, discuss what conversations might already have taken place in the past related to Guardiola someday coaching NYCFC, and detail Guardiola's love affair with New York City, one that blossomed during his sabbatical from coaching in the 2010s after he left FC Barcelona and before he joined up with FC Bayern Munich.
If there's a competition between NYCFC and the USMNT for Pep's services, might NYCFC have the edge? Pep hasn't moved to distance himself from City Football Group in light of Man City's guilty verdict in the Premier League's case against the club over financial rules breaches. He's on City Football Group's payroll right now, as a global ambassador, and it doesn't seem impossible that Pep might be interested in building a "flagship" team in New York City.
Or is leading a national team, and distancing himself more from City Football Group, the next frontier for Guardiola? Is the timing even right for him to take either hypothetical job, if offered? He's only six months out from what was an incredibly demanding, decade-long stint at Manchester City.
While the chances of Guardiola choosing to jump into the American soccer world might not be great, there's still a dream to hang onto for NYCFC, given the ties that remain between Pep and City Football Group.
Listen to this episode all about Pep at the very top of this post where it is embedded, or find it as part of The Soccer Journal Podcast feed wherever you get podcasts, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify for example.
