Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain is expected to leave the club at end of this season.

The Spaniard originally planned to step back from day-to-day operations when he turned 55 but was so invested in the City project and working alongside manager Pep Guardiola that he extended that to his 60th birthday.

He reached that age in August and the decision was made with full knowledge and endorsement of the club hierarchy.

City are believed to have reached an agreement to appoint a replacement, who is due to start in early 2025.

Begiristain played a leading role in the recruitment of his successor and will continue with his duties during a handover period for the first six months.

Guardiola and Begiristain have a close personal relationship having first met as team-mates during their playing days at Barcelona.

In his time as Barcelona technical director, a position he held from 2003 to 2010, Begiristain played a key role in giving Guardiola his first opportunity in management.

Guardiola was named as Frank Rijkaard’s successor in 2008 after receiving the backing of Begiristain over other leading candidates, including Jose Mourinho.

“Txiki is the key to all of this,” Guardiola said years later on his Barca appointment. “When nobody else would take a risk on me, when maybe 3 per cent of the people at Barca believed in me, he was the one who insisted on my appointment to the first team. None of this would have been possible without him.”

Begiristain joined the Etihad club in 2012 in a move that saw reunited with City CEO Ferran Soriano, who he worked with at Barcelona.

After taking over at City in 2016, Guardiola underlined Begiristain’s importance in bringing him to the club: “If Txiki worked for Chelsea, I would probably have called Chelsea,” he said.

Since then, City have enjoyed a period of unprecedented success in English football, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and one Champions League.

GO DEEPER

How Txiki Begiristain became one of the most influential men in football

‘Will Pep join him?’

Analysis by Sam Lee

Txiki Begiristain has been at City for over a decade and was the man trusted by the club’s owners to oversee their grand vision for the club.

His biggest achievement in that sense was helping to lure Pep Guardiola, his great friend and former colleague at Barcelona, to Manchester, but he has also struck deals for some of City’s most important ever players.

It was Begiristain who brought in Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Kyle Walker, Raheem Sterling, Ruben Dias, John Stones and many more, players who have elevated City to the very top level.

Begiristain, affectionately and exclusively known as ‘Txiki’ around the club, has been a pillar of their development. His departure also begs another obvious question: will Pep join him?

(Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)