Pep Guardiola’s bombshell Man City team-talk after break up with ‘most stunning girl on planet’
Pep Guardiola was going through changes in his personal life towards the end of his time as Manchester City manager and opened up to his players
Pep Guardiola and Cristina Serra split after 30 years together(Image: James Whitehead/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola made an impassioned speech to his players after splitting from his wife Cristina Sierra.
Pep and Cristina have three children together, but broke up in the middle of the 2024/25 football season, with the split made public in January 2025. The legendary coach, who left City in May, has since begun to reconcile with the woman he called “the most beautiful woman on the planet”.
The couple were said to remain on amicable terms, even reportedly using the same lawyer for divorce proceedings for the sake of their kids. Their split came around the time that the manager signed a contract extension in Manchester, but he has since stepped away.
Pep Guardiola spoke to his players about his marriage(Image: Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC)
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After a Champions League defeat to Juventus in December 2024, the manager laid down the gauntlet to his players while opening up on his personal life. Behind-the-scenes footage of his speech appears in the new Prime Video documentary ‘A Beautiful Obsession’, which follows Guardiola and City across his last two seasons at the Etihad Stadium.
“Guys, I want to confess something,” Guardiola told his players. “I’m f***ing divorced, from the most beautiful woman on the planet.
“It’s my wife. My ex-wife. I love her unbelievably. But we lost the passion. For many reasons, we lost the passion.
Pep and Cristina have three children together(Image: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
“I love her? Yeah, absolutely. She loves me? Yeah. But we lost the passion.
“How do you play football? Because you play, or because you have something inside?
“Where is the passion? In your life, whatever you are going to do, do it with passion. I don’t want good players, I want players with passion.”
The Catalan manager, 55, was in a relationship with Cristina for 30 years before their 2024 split – 10 of those as a married couple. His ex-wife was in attendance for his final game in charge of City in May 2026 and he emphasised how much it meant to see her there.
“It was so difficult,” he said of that final match. “As always you have the game and your focus is with that, but of course the emotions, especially for my dad, 95, being there.
“Cris, the most important woman of my life, and my kids being there, it was so special for me.”
A Beautiful Obsession launches exclusively on Prime Video in UK & Ireland on August 19, 2026
