BERLIN // Bayern Munich and coach Pep Guardiola will part ways after three seasons at the end of the current campaign and Italian Uefa Champions League-winning coach Carlo Ancelotti will replace the Spaniard, club chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said on Sunday.
"We are thankful to Guardiola for all he gave our club and hope to celebrate more success in the current season," Rummenigge told Bild newspaper.
“I am convinced that Pep and our team are now going to work even more intensively on realising our sporting ambitions, particularly now that it has been confirmed that Pep will be leaving Bayern.
“Carlo Ancelotti has had success as a coach everywhere and he has won the Champions League three times.
“Carlo is a calm, level-headed expert who knows how to work with stars and plays a brand of football rich in variety.
“That is what we were looking for, and that is what we have found. We are looking forward to working with him.”
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Guardiola’s departure was widely expected with several top Premier League clubs reportedly interested in the 44-year-old former Barcelona coach.
A number of European reports last week linked Guardiola with Manchester City, including Spanish paper Marca, who broke the news of the Spaniard's departure on Wednesday, calling City a "bridge to his arrival to the Premier League".
After Bayern's 1-0 win over Hannover on Saturday, forward Thomas Muller said of the manager's future "we'll see what happens".
“Regardless of who is coach, the squad just wants to keep winning.”
The Spaniard took over after Bayern’s 2012/13 treble-winning season and consolidated their domestic dominance with back-to-back league titles and a German Cup in his first two seasons in charge.
But he has yet to lead them to the Champions League title with Bayern losing at the semi-final stage on their previous two attempts.
Bayern are top of the league this season and through to the Champions League knockout stage and can still win the treble.
Ancelotti, 56, is a three-time Champions League winner and has also won a string of domestic titles with AC Milan, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Real Madrid, his most recent appointment.
Like Guardiola, the Italian has won a record three Uefa Super Cups and is now looking forward to pursuing more trophies with Bayern.
“I’m honoured that I will be the coach of Bayern Munich from next season,” he told Bayern’s website.
Ancelotti returns from a one-year sabbatical during which he underwent surgery on his back, but recently confirmed he was ready to return from the start of next season.
“I had some fantastic experiences abroad, but when I left Madrid I decided to take a year off and that is how it is,” he recently told Italy’s RAI radio.
“Some clubs have already made enquiries and I told them all the same thing: that I want to start again from next year. I’ve taken on three jobs during a season, with Juve, Milan and PSG, and they all turned out to be negative.”
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