Bart Slabbekoorn11 Oct 2024, 12:52
Last updated: Oct 11, 2024, 1:59 PM
Manchester City has signed the successor of Director of Football Txiki Begiristain. Portuguese Hugo Viana will switch from Sporting Portugal to the Etihad Stadium next summer, reports Fabrizio Romano on X. Viana managed to impress in Portugal by attracting Ousmane Diomande, Manuel Ugarte and Viktor Gyokeres, among others.
The Citizens announced on Tuesday that Pep Guardiola’s biggest confidant, Begiristain, would leave this summer. The Spaniard has been with the English champions since 2012 and works closely with Guardiola.
Begiristain and Guardiola were teammates at FC Barcelona and later worked together as technical director and trainer of the Catalans respectively. The collaboration continued at Manchester City, but on English soil.
During his tenure in England, the outgoing director managed to bring Erling Braut Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Aké, Rodri and Jack Grealish to Manchester City.
In addition, several national championships and FA Cups have been won since his appointment in 2012. The absolute highlight came in 2023, when Manchester City won the Champions League at the expense of Inter.
Begiristain will be succeeded by Viana next summer, reports Fabrizio Romano X. The 41-year-old Portuguese ended his playing career in 2016 and subsequently started working at Belenenses as technical director. A year later he moved to Sporting Portugal to fulfill the same position.
At Sporting Portugal, in addition to recruiting players, Viana was responsible, among other things, for appointing success coach Rúben Amorim. Since the arrival of Amorim in 2020, the Portuguese top club has won the national title and the cup twice and the super cup once.
