Guardiola’s family fled Manchester Arena bomb

Pep Guardiola has revealed how he went to help his wife and two daughters after they were caught up in the Manchester Arena attack in which 22 people lost their lives.

The Manchester City manager’s family were at the Ariana Grande concert in May 2017 that was attacked by a suicide bomber.

At the time, Guardiola offered his condolences to the families and friends of the victims, and the father of three has now revealed how his own family were affected.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, the 47-year-old explained he was at home with his son, Marius, when he received a call from his wife, Cristina Serra, who was at the concert with their daughters, Valentina and Maria.

“She called me but the line broke immediately. She told me, ‘Something happened and we are running but I don’t know what happened’ and the line broke,” Guardiola said.

“We tried to call her again and it didn’t work. We went to the arena and after five or six minutes she rang again and said, ‘We are out, we’re coming back home’.

“At the end, we were lucky. Many people suffered, and we were lucky. Life is like this. We were in a better position than many unfortunate ones.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Guardiola told the BBC it would be impossible for him to take charge of another team in England after City because “I feel love from the people there”, but he also gave his thoughts about wider issues in society, including the refugee crisis.

“I don’t know what kind of society we are going to do because it’s not about the law, it’s about humanity,” he said. “If there are people dying and heroes going in with open arms to rescue them, and the governments don’t let them do that, it’s because we are going really bad.

“That is why the European Community, the United States, Russia, all the big countries have to solve these problems.”