Pep Guardiola is to leave Bayern Munich at the end of this season and will be replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, the club have confirmed.
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Guardiola won 14 trophies, including two Champions League crown during four years in the Barcelona hotseat, while the 44-year-old has guided league leaders Bayern successive Bundesliga titles since arriving at the Allianz Arena in 2013.
“It’s a great honour for me that I will be trainer of such a great club as FC Bayern next season”, said Ancelotti, who has signed a three-year contract until 2019, in a club statement.
Rummenigge described Ancelotti as “a calm, balanced expert, who can deal with stars and can play a flexible game”. He concluded, “We were looking for this, and we have found it. We are looking forward to working with him”. The transition did not harm Bayern at the time as they went on to complete a title treble in the final games under Heynckes.
Barcelona won 76.32 per cent of Spanish league fixtures under Guardiola, claiming the Liga title in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and only Ancelotti’s reign at Real Madrid, during which he achieved a win ratio of 75 per cent, comes anywhere close to matching the Spaniard.
The 56-year-old comes with a phenomenal record as coach, having won three Champions League titles and the league in three different countries.
Guardiola won Europe’s premier competition twice with Barcelona as he established himself as the most talented young coach in world soccer between 2008 and 2012.
Guardiola is then thought to want to pursue a career as a national team coach – he harbours an ambition to manage Brazil or even retire by the age of 50.
It has brought to an end weeks of doubt surrounding Guardiola’s future as the ex-Barcelona boss has stalled on a new £17m-a-year offer to stay at Bayern.
“It’s a bad season if we don’t win the treble”, Guardiola said at the beginning of November.
Bayern Munich’s coach Pep Guardiola has revealed that he has made a decision on his future but he refused to reveal whether he will be in Bayern Munich next summer.
Ancelotti is the only coach to win three Champions League titles, although Bob Paisley also won three in the European Cup with Liverpool.
“I am sure he will be very important for the club also”.
Bayern München surprised few on Sunday morning when they confirmed that coach Josep Guardiola will be leaving in the summer after three years at the helm.
The club has not stated a reason for Guardiola’s departure but the fact that he is to continue managing until May suggests that it is an amicable split.
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He is looking to emulate Heynckes, as well as Jose Mourinho, who he had a tempestuous relationship with when the pair worked at Barca and Real Madrid respectively, by winning that title with two different clubs.
