GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST is set to end his brief association with Manchester City and move to China.
The 44-year-old former Arsenal, Rangers and Barcelona star was given an “access-all-areas” role at the reigning Premier League champions back in the summer.
It came after he stepped down as Feyenoord boss at the end of last season after four seasons at the Dutch club.
During that time he won the Eredivise championship – the club’s first for nearly two decades.
He had been expected to take a year-long sabbatical, but surprisingly ended up working behind the scenes at Man City.
It’s understood Van Bronckhorst took the role to get an experience of how the club – and the City Football Group in general – ran their business.
Now the Daily Mail claim he is leaving the Premier League giants to become the new boss at Chinese Super League club Guangzhou R&F.
Man Citys sister club New York City FC were believed to have earmarked the ex-midfielder as a future head coach.
However, despite working with the City Football Group all season, he appears to have opted against replacing Domenec Torrent at the MLS outfit.
SHORT TERM SOLUTION
Van Bronckhorst indicated back in October that his time with Pep Guardiola’s side was only ever a short term solution and that he was simply biding his time before getting back into management.
He said: “I have been to Manchester a number of times and travel a lot.
“I see new things, experience new things and continue to develop. For me, that is very beautiful at the moment.
“Ultimately, I want to be a head coach again.
“That is the best thing for me. This is a great interim solution.”
Van Bronckhorst’s close friend Claudio Reyna was a sporting director at New York City FC, which strengthened the suggestions that would be his next move.
They became close while playing together for Rangers with Reyna even naming one of his kids Giovanni, who is now a 17-year-old on the books at Dortmund. But he quit to take over at MLS expansion team Austin FC in November.
And Van Bronckhorst is now allegedly putting the final touches on a move to Guangzhou according to todays report.
