Manchester City have confirmed the departure of Txiki Begiristain. The director of football ends his 13-year tenure at the Etihad Stadium, with the Champions League title the ultimate reward for his project.
Aitor ‘Txiki’ Begiristain, Manchester City’s director of football for the past 13 years, has left the ‘sky blues’, after winning 21 trophies, including their first ever Champions League, the Mancunian club announced in a statement on Thursday.
Considered one of the architects of Manchester City’s success in recent years, Begiristain, as announced in October 2024, will leave the club and hand over his position to former Portuguese footballer Hugo Viana, who will take up his new role this summer.
As the club emphasises, the former sporting director of Barcelona has been “a key figure in an extraordinary period”, which in these 13 years has resulted in seven Premier League titles, two FA Cups, one Champions League, one FIFA Club World Cup and one European Super Cup.
Therefore, Manchester City have announced a series of events to honour his career at the club, starting with an invitation to the match against Manchester United on 14 September, where he will be thanked for “his commitment, tireless work and unique vision in the transfer market”.
In addition, City Studios, the club’s audiovisual platform, will also premiere a feature film in September entitled ‘Txiki’s Farewell’, which includes testimonials from colleagues, friends and family from his time as a footballer – he played for Real Sociedad, Barcelona, Deportivo de la Coruna and Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds – to becoming “one of the best sporting directors football has ever had”.
Begiristain arrived at Manchester City in the summer of 2012, brought in by Ferran Soriano, chief executive of the English side. In 2016, the current coach, Pep Guardiola, arrived at the team’s dugout, with whom he coincided in the most glorious stage in the history of Barcelona, a success that both repeated with the ‘sky blues’.