SAUDI ARABIA PERSPECTIVE

Riyad, May 22, 2026. As Pep Guardiola leaves Manchester City after ten years and 20 trophies, Arabophone reference media chooses an unexpected prism: not the six Premier League titles or the single Champions League won by the club, but the man who wore a Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck at a charity event in Barcelona in January 2026.

Asharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab daily based in London and Riyadh, dedicates a long portrait to what could be called Guardiola's double identity: legendary coach, certainly, but also an outspoken political voice. The title chosen by the editorial team — 'Success Fuels Guardiola's Campaign for a 'Better Society'' — says it all about this editorial angle. The newspaper details his public interventions on Gaza, the Ukraine conflict, Sudan, and even the deaths caused by ICE agents in the United States.

The Gaza war, triggered by the Hamas attack in October 2023, killed at least 72,568 people, according to the numbers cited by the newspaper. Guardiola, who did not hide his emotion in the face of images of displaced children, had publicly spoken: 'We left them alone, abandoned,' he declared at a press conference. These words find a particular echo in a publication whose readership is predominantly Arabophone and sensitive to the Palestinian cause.

The portrait does not hide the tensions that these positions have sparked in the UK. The Representative Council of Jewish Manchester had sent a letter to the club's president, Khaldoon Al Mubarak — a figure from the United Arab Emirates — estimating that the coach's statements put 'at risk' the local Jewish community. The FA had also fined Guardiola £20,000 in 2018 for wearing a yellow ribbon in support of imprisoned Catalan separatists. Guardiola did not change his line.

Asharq Al-Awsat also notes, in parallel, the appointment of Michael Carrick as permanent manager of Manchester United until 2028. The 44-year-old technician led the Red Devils to third place in the Premier League and Champions League qualification, after winning 11 of his 16 first matches. This second article illustrates the editorial team's interest in the entire English football landscape, without this aspect being directly linked to Guardiola's departure.

For Riyadh's press, Guardiola's departure represents less the end of a sports era than that of a tribune: a coach who used football's prestige to defend humanitarian causes, some of which directly resonate with Arab concerns.