How ‘seductive’ Man City boss Pep Guardiola wooed wife Cristina away from her TV career – and took her advice on tactics

MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola has been so stressed out in recent months he has sworn at autograph hunters and bled from scratching his head.

He is suffering the worst run of results in an impeccable career.

After winning six Premier League titles in seven years, his usually invincible team went seven games without a victory.

And they’ve had just three victories in the last ten Prem matches.

But now it seems his bizarre behaviour could also be a response to the end of his marriage to teenage sweetheart Cristina Serra.

It was revealed this week that the 53-year-old football legend has split from the mother of his three children after 30 years.

The couple were said to have called it a day FIVE YEARS ago but kept the news under wraps until officially parting ways last month.

A well-informed source in Pep’s homeland of Spain said: “I can assure you they’re living apart and only a handful of people knew about this.”

The announcement of the break-up was preceded by his worst ever run as a manager, with his once invincible side losing five games in a row before Christmas.

‘Already seductive’

There had been rumours that all was not been well with the relationship for a while.

In 2019, Cristina, 52, moved back to Barcelona with the couple’s youngest daughter, Valentina, 17, while Pep stayed in Manchester.

But in public, Pep’s love for Cristina, who he married in 2014, seemed to be as strong as ever.

They spent this Christmas together and were in the Royal Box on Centre Court at Wimbledon last summer, after previously being spotted on idyllic holidays and sharing an emotional kiss after Man City won the Champions League for the first time in 2023.

He has credited his wife with his great sense of fashion and for bringing up his children.

Brazilian Cristina was so important to the Spaniard that he refused to join any team without her say-so.

In a rare personal interview in 2018, he said: “Only at home I feel safe. I mean safe in terms of not being observed. I close the door and I feel safe.

“My job is demanding a lot. Cristina is an incredible woman, not just an incredible mother.

“If we were talking about moving to New York, Munich and here, if she decides not to come, I won’t come. I will not be here, I cannot be alone in this kind of job without my family.”

The romance began when an 18-year-old Pep went to a fashion store in Barcelona owned by Cristina’s family to model some outfits by Spanish designer Antonio Miro.

At the time, he was playing for Barcelona’s B team, while she was an actress who had appeared on Spanish TV.

Pep’s sister Francesca once said: “He was very handsome, a good student, always getting good marks, the teachers drooled over him, he was already seductive when he was little.”

Cristina gave up acting to concentrate on her successful clothing business and is now said to be worth over £30million.

Meanwhile, Pep established himself as one of the best midfielders of his generation, winning multiple titles with Barcelona’s first team.

But in 2001 he tested positive for the prohibited steroid nandrolone and was banned from playing for four months.

Cristina is said to have been his rock during this time, and put out a statement defending her husband, who always denied doping. It took him another six years to clear his name on appeal.

Pep was known as “Perfecto” due to his obsession with the game — and he did not approve of team-mates putting their social lives first.

When he retired as a player in 2006 it did not lead to more time with Cristina as he jumped straight into management with Barcelona’s B team.

As a result, Pep was even more consumed by tactics, to the point that he could not hold a conversation about other subjects for more than half an hour.

His friend Manel Estiarte told The Times in 2016: “You invite him for a meal in a restaurant, but after 32 minutes you can see his mind is already wandering.

“He starts staring at the ceiling and, although he’s nodding as if he’s listening to you, he’s not looking at you. In actual fact he’s probably thinking about the opposition left-back, the marking scheme for the midfielder, how much the wingers can support the inside forwards.”

The manager has admitted that he can also drift off into a world of his own when he is at home with his wife and children.

He said: “My family know that I am there but I am not there. Sometimes I’m at home but not at home.

“They call ‘Pep, Pep’ but they know I am in my own world.”
Pep’s dedication to his job has more than paid off. He became the youngest manager to win the Champions League in 2009, lifting the most sought-after trophy in his first season in charge of Barcelona’s first team.

The demands of day-to-day management took their toll though, and in 2012 he quit as boss in order to take a year out. He admitted: “I’m drained and I need to fill up.”

That gave the family a chance to enjoy a more relaxed life in New York, where they went around unrecognised as they visited art galleries and hung out in cafes.

‘My wife is so elegant’

But the Premier League’s top clubs, including Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, were all chasing him. He turned them down in favour of German giants Bayern Munich in 2013, whose stars included Dutch winger Arjen Robben.

While at the Bundesliga team he told the Press that Cristina gave her opinion about his starting line-up. Smiling, he said: “My wife is more complicated than Robben. Cristina sometimes complains about my tactical decisions.

“She tells me to repeat the 11 with which I won the last match. To explain to her my system of rotation is more difficult than telling Robben, ‘Today you’re a substitute’.”

Cristina also made her views known about the well-dressed Pep’s sartorial choices. He said: “My wife is so elegant, she helps me a lot. Before, I was a disaster. But now I am elegant thanks to her.”

But it took two decades before Pep made Cristina his wife, with the couple getting hitched at a civil ceremony in 2014 in Matadepera, Catalonia.

That was followed by a move to Manchester two years later when he became City boss.

The family lived a plush apartment in Salford, not far from the centre, with their children Maria, 24, Marius, 22, and Valentina.

During the short breaks between the long and stressful football seasons they would take holidays in exclusive resorts in Mauritius and Barbados.

But in 2019, Pep’s statement that he would only go where his wife did no longer appeared to stand.

Cristina moved back to Barcelona to look after the fashion business while he remained in Manchester.

The new living arrangements coincided with a string of defeats for City, and at the end of the 2019/20 season they lost the Premier League to Liverpool.

Maria went to study in London and is now a social media influencer whose boyfriends have been rumoured to include former England player Dele Alli. Marius lives in Dubai, where he runs a marketing and publicity company.

That appears to leave Pep alone in his £2.7million apartment in Deansgate CitySuites, central Manchester. Cristina remains the patron of their charitable foundation, Fundacion Guardiola Sala, and is expected to keep the £8million mansion they own in Barcelona.

The break-up is said to be amicable and not due to any affairs.

Spanish reporter Lorena Vazquez said: “It’s been a carefully considered decision the couple discussed over several months.

“They continue to have a cordial and affectionate relationship. No one else is involved. There are no third parties.”

Last summer he showed signs of irritation when he confronted some young men asking for autographs near his flat. Pep told them: “Don’t come again, I won’t tell you again, I know your faces.”

Fans were concerned when a cut appeared on his nose and there were scratch marks on his forehead.

Following a draw in the Champions League in November, he addressed the marks by commenting: “I want to harm myself. It’s from my nail on my finger. I cut myself with my fingernail.”

He later had to apologise following accusations that he was making light of self-harm.

With the revelation that his marriage is now over, these actions take on a new light.

And what was proving to be his toughest season on the pitch may well also be his hardest year off the field as well.