From Fabrizio Romano: Pep Guardiola to lose top Manchester City assistant after nine-year stay at the club

Pep Guardiola is set to lose a second member of his Manchester City backroom coaching staff, with Rodolfo Borrell preparing to leave the club for the MLS.

The Manchester City assistant coach, who has been at the Etihad Stadium since 2014, will became the latest high-profile departure from Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff and the second exit of the summer.

Rodolfo Borrell has been part of Guardiola’s first-team staff since his arrival in 2016 and was named assistant manager for the treble-winning 2022/23 campaign, following the departure of Juanma Lillo last year.

The Spaniard was Academy Technical Director at the City Football Academy between 2014 and 2016, having joined from Liverpool, where he had worked as Technical Director and Head of Coaching since 2009.

Borrell will become the sixth departure from Guardiola’s staff, and his exit comes just weeks after Enzo Maresca left the Etihad Stadium to become the new manager at Leicester City.

Fabrizio Romano reports that Borrell is set to move to Austic FC in the MLS as Sporting Director, ending a nine-year stay in East Manchester.

Borrell will sign a multi-year deal with the US club, leaving both City and Guardiola.

The 52 year-old has previously acted as a Global Technical Director to the Manchester City manager, and is boasted as being Lionel Messi’s first coach at Barcelona.

Borrell was also key to the development of footballing legends Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta when working at the Camp Nou.

Following the departure of Maresca to the King Power Stadium, it was reported that Manchester City were working to bring back former assistant coach Juanma Lillo, who is currently in charge at Al Sadd in Qatar.

Lillo is claimed to have an exit clause within his contract, which must be triggered in order for the coach to be able to leave.

Manchester City may have also been aware of the potential for Borrell to be departing at the time of that enquiry, as it was further claimed that Lillo’s assistant coach in Qatar, Inigo Dominguez, could also move to Guardiola’s coaching staff for the new campaign.

Lillo helped Manchester City to two Premier League titles, and his coaching portfolio includes coaching the Chile national team and working under Jorge Sampaoli.

Meanwhile, Dominguez has worked alongside Lillo on two occasions, and has been an assistant coach at Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Marseille.

Borrell will be the sixth exit from Guardiola’s staff, following; Domènec Torrent, Mikel Arteta, Brian Kidd, Lillo and Maresca.