Marca reports<\/a> that Guardiola earns around \u20ac24.8 million gross at Manchester City, a figure that sits far beyond the Italian federation\u2019s recent structure, where Roberto Mancini earned around \u20ac3 million net even after winning the European Championship. There is, however, a precedent for bridging that gap. When Antonio Conte took over the national team in 2014, part of his salary was covered by a sponsor, and a similar model could be considered again, with Puma, which has a relationship with Guardiola, mentioned as a possible partner in such an arrangement. The idea would be to build something around Guardiola rather than simply appoint him, using his profile to reshape how the national team is perceived as well as how it performs. <\/p>\nGuardiola\u2019s interest in international football and link to Italy <\/p>\n
Guardiola has previously made clear that he wants to coach a national team at some point. In a 2021 interview with ESPN, he said: \u201cI would like to have the experience of living a World Cup, a European Championship, a Copa America, whatever. I would like to experience a major national team competition. I don\u2019t know when, in five, 10 or 15 years, but I would like to play in a World Cup as a coach. To work in a national team, you have to be wanted and hired, as happens with clubs. I don\u2019t know who wants me to work in a national team.\u201d Italy is not unfamiliar territory for him. He played in Serie A for AS Roma and Brescia Calcio, speaks the language, and has spoken about his admiration for Italian football, once responding \u201cwhy not?\u201d when asked in 2018 about the possibility of working there. <\/p>\n
Support from within the game and succession plans <\/p>\n
The idea has backing from within Italian football. Former defender Leonardo Bonucci said at the Laureus World Sports Awards: \u201cIf there\u2019s a real desire to start over, I\u2019d start with Pep Guardiola, because bringing in someone like him would mean making a complete change compared to everything that happened in the past. \u201cI think it\u2019s very difficult, but dreaming right now doesn\u2019t cost anything.\u201d If Guardiola were to leave Manchester City, there is already movement around a replacement. Fabrizio Romano reports that Enzo Maresca is part of a \u201cclear plan\u201d at the club. Maresca, who previously worked under Guardiola at City before moving into management, is currently unattached after leaving Chelsea FC in January 2026, having won both the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup. <\/p>\n
What comes next <\/p>\n
Italy are expected to appoint a new federation president on June 22, and that decision is likely to determine how quickly the process moves forward and whether a formal approach to Guardiola is made. For now, the situation rests on three moving parts: Italy\u2019s intent to pursue a high-profile appointment, the financial structure required to make it viable, and Guardiola\u2019s own decision on whether the next phase of his career comes at club level or with a national team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City’s head coach Pep Guardiola walks off the pitch after the Premier League soccer match between Burnley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1013,5,139,590,2391,430],"class_list":{"0":"post-9908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-italian-football","9":"tag-italy","10":"tag-italy-national-team","11":"tag-manchester-city","12":"tag-pep-guardiola","13":"tag-world-cup-qualification"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Italian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/britain-premier-league-soccer.jpg\" "\\"Manchester")
Manchester City’s head coach Pep Guardiola walks off the pitch after the Premier League soccer match between Burnley and Manchester City in Burnley, England, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Dave Thompson) Pep Guardiola has emerged as a genuine target for Italy as the federation looks to rebuild after a run of results that has left the national side without a clear direction and, for the third straight cycle, outside the World Cup. The scale of that failure has pushed the conversation beyond a routine appointment and into something more ambitious, with Guardiola\u2019s name now part of internal discussions about how far the reset should go. <\/p>\n![\"Italy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/italy-soccer-president-and-delegation-chief-buffon-resign-after-another-world-cup-failure.jpg\" "\\"Italy's")
<\/p>\n![\"Coach](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/coach-gattuso-not-interested-in-talking-about-his-future-after-italy-miss-out-on-world-cup-again.jpg\" "\\"Italy")
<\/p>\n