Pep Guardiola will leave Bayern in summer after the expiration of his contract and Carlo Ancelotti will take over as new coach on a three-year deal until 2019, the Bundesliga champions confirmed on Sunday.
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Guardiola’s departure was widely expected with several top Premier League clubs reportedly interested in the 44-year-old former Barcelona coach, who had won 14 titles in four years at the Spanish club.
Rummenigge described Ancelotti as “a calm, balanced expert, who can deal with stars and can play a flexible game”. “We look forward to working with him”.
City owner Sheikh Mansour has long coveted Guardiola and has employed Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, both of whom worked with the Catalan during his richly successful tenure as Barcelona coach. But Guardiola’s team was torn apart by Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid 4-0 in Munich to go out 5-0 on aggregate in the semifinals of the Champions League.
That momentum is reflected in Guardiola’s domestic record with the club, having won 81.18 per cent of his 85 matches in the top flight since taking charge in June 2013, scoring a staggering 220 goals in the process.
And that increases the chances of Manchester City, with their huge financial resources, winning the battle for the Bayern Munich boss.
And Rummenigge believes he knows where the manager’s next club will be too, but he doesn’t want to reveal it, telling German newspaper Bild: “I think I know where he is going – but I want to leave the announcement to him or his new employer”.
“It’s an honour for me to be part of this great club next season, FC Bayern Munich”, he wrote.
In replacing Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice with former club Barcelona, Bayern have opted for a man with three European Cup successes to his name.
But at this stage of his Bayern career his (Pep’s) most likely challenge this season would be wining the champion’s league crown with the Bundesliga side.
Ancelotti delivered Madrid’s coveted 10th Champions League title in 2014 – beating Guardiola’s Bayern en route to the final – but the following season produced no trophies and he left in May.
Pep Guardiola has paved the way for a move to Manchester City next summer.
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Guardiola flew home to Spain on Sunday and has given no indication of his future plans, but has been heavily linked to Manchester City.
