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Guardiola's €80m salary demand kills Italy hopes as staggering career earnings revealed
24 Jul 2026 09:58 BST |
4 min read
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Pep Guardiola’s lavish salary demands are set to put an end to Italy’s hopes of landing the former Manchester City boss.
Guardiola stepped away from the Premier League side at the end of the season following a spell of 10 years in charge at the Emirates Stadium.
He intends to take time away from football, but the Italian FA has attempted to tempt him back into management via the international game.
Italy set to reject Guardiola’s €80m demand
Guardiola has set his wage demands at €20 million per season, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Given the contract offered to him was a four-year deal, he has pitched himself at €80m over the course of four years.
This does represent a slight cut on his reported Manchester City pay, which sat at €25m, but would make him the highest-paid international coach in the world by some distance.
As a point of comparison, Carlo Ancelotti, who was asked to leave Brazil to coach Italy, is paid €10m per year with the Selecao. This is the world-leading salary for an international manager.
Guardiola’s demands shatter that figure.
It comes as little surprise, then, that the Italian FA are unable to match Guardiola’s demands. Gazzetta reports:
“He's unlikely to accept the Azzurri's offer. The situation is currently difficult because there seems to be a significant gap between the significant salary offered by the federation (€10m per season) and Pep's request, which is approximately double that.”
Italy are therefore ready to turn their thoughts elsewhere, with Andrea Pirlo the leading contender for the role ahead of Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte.
Guardiola’s monstrous career earnings revealed
Guardiola is under little pressure to take a job, having earned more than €320m in his managerial career to date, Gazzetta calculates.
His salary, though, has exploded in recent years. When he first took charge of Barcelona, he signed a two-year deal that was worth just €1.5m per season, although this leapt to €8m when he signed a new contract in 2010 and then €10m when a new agreement was reached a year later.
His wages continued to grow after he took his sabbatical after becoming burned out at Barcelona. Guardiola joined Bayern Munich at that point and earned €17m per season over three years.
The Catalan then joined Manchester City in 2016 on terms that saw him earn an initial €19m per year. This grew to €23m in three subsequent contract extensions but leapt to €25m when he agreed a 2024 contract.
Guardiola therefore earned €44m at Barcelona, €51m at Bayern Munich and €226m at Manchester City, taking his total earning to €321m gross. This likely makes him the best-paid manager in the history of the game.
Of course, this figure does not include bonus payments made for all the trophies he has won across his career.
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