Txiki Begiristain spotted greeting and hugging new Manchester City hierarchy arrival at Sporting clash | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Director of Football, Txiki Begiristain has been spotted warmly greeting his successor at the Etihad Stadium whilst in Lisbon this week.

The Premier League champions’, along with their youth set-up, travelled to the Portuguese capital for contests in both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Youth League, with defeats for the club in both matches.

For the senior team, it was a third successive defeat thanks to a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Ruben Amorim’s Sporting CP side with goals coming from Maximiliano Araujo and a hat-trick from the ever-impressive Viktor Gyokeres.

A similarly disappointing result was also experienced by City’s young stars, succumbing to a 2-0 loss against Sporting’s under-19s as a 10-man City Football Academy squad conceded to goals from Gabriel Silva and Denilson Santos, with Max Alleyne receiving a straight red card.

Two of the two clubs’ key figures were among the delegation watching over proceedings from the stands in the UEFA Youth League meeting, with photographers for national media capturing a moment between the present and future of Manchester City’s operation.

As per photographs captured by Portuguese outlet Record, City’s departing director of football Txiki Begiristain was in Alcochete on Tuesday afternoon to watch the UEFA Youth League match.

As part of his visit to the under-19s clash ahead of the senior team’s fixture later on the same day, Begiristain crossed paths with Hugo Viana – appointed by Manchester City to become their new director of football in 2025.

Record explain that Begiristain and Viana exchanged a hug as well as a few words ahead of the contest in the UEFA Youth League.

https://twitter.com/City_Xtra/status/1853835919297802416

At present, it remains officially unknown when Hugo Viana will take his position at Manchester City, however it is understood that the 41-year-old will undergo a transitional period at the club before taking the director of football role full-time from next summer.

The wider understanding is that the change of director of football at the Etihad Stadium is not directly linked to the future of Pep Guardiola, who continues to weigh up his options on whether he wishes to extend his City contract – which expires next summer.