Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola held crisis talks with his wife Cristina Serra shortly before signing the new contract blamed for their shock divorce, reports say.
According to The Sun, Guardiola flew out to Barcelona for dinner with his partner of 30 years in October, but onlookers described the couple as looking ‘tense’.
A waiter at Bodega Sepulveda, said to be Guardiola’s favourite restaurant in the Catalan city, said: ‘He came in with his wife about three months ago.
‘They sat in the corner and things looked a little tense between them. He was talking animatedly. We were all shocked to hear that they had split.’
After returning to the UK, Guardiola signed a two-year extension to commit his future to the Premier League champions until at least 2027.
The 54-year-old was expected to leave the club at the end of the season after a glittering nine-year spell in charge but was convinced to stay.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will split from Cristina Serra, his wife of 30 years
The couple are pictured together after City won the Champions League in June 2023
Guardiola’s new contract is said to be the integral reason behind their shock divorce
Spanish journalists Laura Fa and Lorena Vazquez have alleged that this surprise U-turn was an integral factor behind the split.
The reporters, who make up a duo called the Mamarazzis, said: ‘She takes the decision when he decides to extend his contract with Manchester City because in the previous months Pep had been preparing his departure from the club.
‘We know one of his objectives was to leave and move to the United Arab Emirates.
‘People around him were beginning to say goodbye to him because he wasn’t going to renew. That decision not to renew was helping bring him closer to his wife.
‘But when he decided to stay and extend his contract, Cristina decided enough was enough and it was her that decided to end the marriage.’
Vazquez then added: ‘It’s been a carefully considered decision the couple discussed over several months. They continue to have a cordial and affectionate relationship. No one else is involved. There are no third parties.’
The couple met in 1994 and married in 2014. They have three children together.
One friend close to Guardiola, who did not want to be named, told MailOnline last week: ‘I think they have grown apart. She left Manchester about five years ago to return to Barcelona. That has taken its toll.
Guardiola is said to have flown out to Barcelona last October for crisis talks with Serra
Guardiola and Serra share three children: Maria, 24, Marius, 22, and Valentina, 15 (right)
They have lived in different cities for several years (pictured: the couple in Munich in 2013)
Serra attended the FIFA Best Awards in London alongside Guardiola in January of last year
‘He is a total workaholic and not being involved in their family fashion business together may have affected their relationship too.’
Serra moved back to Barcelona in 2019 with their youngest daughter Valentina, now 17, to help run her family’s designer clothes boutique.
Since returning, Serra has been living in a villa in Pedralbes, an exclusive neighbourhood in the hills surrounding Barcelona.
The couple bought the property for £8.55million in 2021 and Serra and Valentina have been based there while Guardiola continues to live in his £2.7m Salford bachelor pad.
Spanish news outlet El Confidencial described the mansion as ‘the perfect place for a separation without anyone discovering when you leave or enter’.
Friends have claimed that the split has been ‘friendly and cordial’ and Guardiola is said to have spent Christmas with his family before touching back down in the UK.
Guardiola will have completed 11 years at City when his new deal ends.
Shortly after penning the lucrative contract extension, he said: ‘Honestly, I think myself, my staff and friends, I think we deserve to be here. I am sorry to say.
‘I am not arrogant to say, but it’s the truth.
‘I think we deserve after four defeats in a row to bounce back and try to turn the situation. In that moment, in the period, I had the feeling you have to take the right decisions for the future and I want to take it.
‘Manchester City means so much to me. This is my ninth season here – we have experienced so many amazing times together. I have a really special feeling for this football club. That is why I am so happy to be staying for another two more seasons.’
