Manchester City to Name Etihad Stand After Pep Guardiola and Commission Statue Following Manager’s Departure

Manchester City have confirmed two permanent tributes to outgoing manager Pep Guardiola: the renaming of the Etihad Stadium’s newly expanded North Stand as ‘The Pep Guardiola Stand’, and the commissioning of a statue in his likeness to be placed outside it. The club’s official announcement confirmed both measures as the 55-year-old prepares to take charge of his final match this Sunday against Aston Villa at the Etihad.

Guardiola’s exit comes a full twelve months before his contract was due to expire. The decision followed a week of widespread speculation that the club had already begun preparations for a managerial transition. Sunday’s home fixture against Aston Villa will serve as an emotional send-off for the Spaniard, who has spent a decade reshaping Manchester City into one of the most decorated clubs in English football history.

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak addressed the significance of the tributes in a statement accompanying the announcement. “The Pep Guardiola Stand, and the statue that will sit outside it, rightly ensure that Pep’s legacy will remain forever woven into the fabric of this football club, the city of Manchester and English football,” he said. “The unique relationship that he has with our fans has been earned through the honesty and passion of his ten seasons fighting to bring them success.”

Guardiola’s statue will join existing sculptures of club icons Vincent Kompany, David Silva, and Sergio Agüero on the Etihad campus, placing him firmly within the pantheon of figures considered central to the club’s modern identity. The choice of location — directly outside the renamed stand — reinforces the institutional weight the club is attaching to his legacy.

Over his ten seasons at the Etihad, Guardiola guided City to an unprecedented accumulation of domestic and European honours, establishing the club as a consistent force at the highest levels of the Premier League and UEFA Champions League. His tenure is widely regarded as the most successful in the club’s history, a period that redefined expectations both for the club and for English football more broadly.

The timing of the departure, one year ahead of schedule, adds an element of surprise to what would otherwise have been a planned succession. Reports earlier in the week suggested the club had already been in advanced discussions regarding a replacement, though no official announcement on that front has been made. Guardiola himself has cited his own reasoning for stepping down at this point in the season, describing it as the right moment to do so.

With the managerial search ongoing and a World Cup year approaching, the transition period will be closely watched. Whoever succeeds Guardiola will inherit a squad built around his footballing principles, along with the considerable weight of expectation that a decade of sustained success inevitably generates.