MAN City manager Pep Guardiola held crisis talks with his wife shortly before he signed the new contract blamed for their marriage split.
Title-winning Pep, 54, flew to Barcelona for dinner with Cristina Serra in October, with onlookers saying the couple looked “tense”.
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A waiter at Bodega Sepulveda, Pep’s favourite restaurant in the city, said: “He came in with his wife about three months ago.
“They sat in the corner and things looked a little tense between them. He was talking animatedly.
“We were all shocked to hear that they had split.”
After returning to the UK, Pep signed a two-year extension to his deal with the reigning Premier League champions — taking his stay to 2027.
He had been widely expected to quit the club after nine successful years.
And influential Spanish journalists Laura Fa and Lorenza Vazquez claimed that his decision was behind the break-up.
They said: “She takes the decision when he decides to extend his contract with Manchester City because in the previous months Pep had been preparing his departure from the club.
“We know one of his objectives was to leave and move to the United Arab Emirates.
“People around him were beginning to say goodbye to him because he wasn’t going to renew his contact.
“That decision not to renew was helping bring him closer to his wife.
“But when he decided to stay and extend his contract, Cristina decided enough was enough and it was her that decided to end the marriage.”
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.”
Cristina, 52, had moved back to Barcelona to run her fashion business five years ago, while Pep stayed in Manchester to manage the City team.
The couple met in 1994, married in 2014 and have three children together.
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