Jurgen Klopp Given Unique Honor in Man City’s Tribute for Pep Guardiola

The two managers contested several of the best ever Premier League title races.

Pep Guardiola (left) and Jürgen Klopp were the best of rivals. | Michael Regan/The FA/Getty Images

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Proverbs 27:17

Manchester City saw it only fitting to include former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp in special artwork commemorating Pep Guardiola’s 10 years at the club.

Guardiola managed his final City match on Sunday, closing out the 2025–26 Premier League season with a home defeat to Aston Villa. There was nothing riding on the match, meaning the occasion could be about Guardiola, plus departing duo Bernardo Silva and John Stones.

Prior to kickoff, the club shared a post that paid tribute to Guardiola’s decade in charge and the unprecedented success it brough to east Manchester. Sharing the poster image on X, fans were encouraged to “pinch and zoom to catch every detail.”

It was full of images of Guardiola and the many City players who have underpinned this chapter in the club’s history, like Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, Fernandinho, Rodri and plenty more. The only individual featured not connected to the Sky Blues was Klopp.

The greatest to ever do it. Thank you, Pep 🩵

Pinch and zoom to catch every detail 🔎✨ pic.twitter.com/gadD2idjSO

— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 24, 2026

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Guardiola vs. Klopp Rivalry Defined an Era

Each man pushed the other to be better. | Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

Klopp’s Liverpool pushed Guardiola’s City hard. In 2018–19, the teams were neck and neck in the Premier League title race, with City needing to close out the season with 14 straight wins to get and then stay ahead of Liverpool, who won all of their last nine matches. City prevailed with 98 points, while Liverpool’s 97 remains the highest ever points tally not recorded by champions, and still the fourth highest of any team in the entire history of English league soccer.

A year later, Liverpool were crowned runaway champions with 99 points, while 2021–22 was another tense battle was saw both team surpass 90 points again. Again, City edged it. Liverpool did not challenge City every time Guardiola added another title to his collection, but it was the years that Klopp and the Reds came strong when City particularly upped their game.

Had it not been for Guardiola, Klopp would undoubtedly have won more than just one Premier League title and the mutual respect between fiercely competitive sporting rivals has been clear for many years, dating back to when they previously contested opposite sides of Germany’s Klassiker—Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund.

Klopp noted in 2024 that the pair are not close on a personal level, but “for a rivalry, we don’t need to be disrespectful.” When the German decided the time was right to leave Liverpool, Guardiola credited his adversary with playing a part in his and City’s greatness. “We cannot define our period here without him ... without Liverpool. Impossible.”

Acknowledgement of what Liverpool and Manchester City have done for each other in the last 10 years was conveyed by Andy Robertson on the occasion of his final Reds appearance. The left back took the time after the final whistle of the 1–1 draw with Brentford at Anfield to honor Guardiola.

“Pep Guardiola pushed us to completely new limits,” Robertson said live on Sky Sports. “I think both will agree with that. And, probably, we should have won more Premier Leagues if it wasn’t for that man. What a servant to Manchester City, and I wish him all the best.”

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Will Guardiola, Klopp Ever Face Each Other Again?

It began more than a decade ago in the Bundesliga. | Team 2 Sportphoto/ullstein bild/Getty Images

Klopp hasn’t returned to management since leaving Liverpool two years ago, instead operating in a Head of Global Soccer role for Red Bull. Guardiola is also poised to take a break, already confirmed to be going into an ambassadorial and technical advisory role for the City Football Group.

But never say never to them lining up as opposing managers in the future.

Should Guardiola step back into management, he is more likely to take charge of a national side, having long ago expressed his desire to someday lead a team into a World Cup. Spain is not considered likely by the man himself, perhaps due to his support of Catalan separatism, but plenty of options could be open to him—both within Europe and across the rest of the world.

Although forced to deny any approach from Real Madrid earlier this year, Klopp hasn’t ruled out managing again: “As a coach I’m not completely finished. I haven’t reached retirement age.”

Ambitious Ligue 1 team Paris FC, with whom there are potential ties via Red Bull, have expressed an interest in tempting Klopp back to the touchline. But rumor has it that Klopp, like Guardiola, is targeting international soccer as well, specifically the Germany national team.

Current Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann has a contract that runs to the end of Euro 2028 and Klopp, largely out of respect for the incumbent and country, is not in any hurry. But when the job is next open, expect him to be front of the line. It’s kind of how Zinedine Zidane has approached the France job since leaving Real Madrid for the second time in 2021, only with eyes for the role he really wants and biding his time—even if it’s taken five years for Didier Deschamps to step aside.

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