Late in January, a story emerged claiming that Manchester City’s Juanma Lillo was an option for the Chile national team job.
ADN Deportes stated the 55-year-old’s name ‘came up strongly’, while ESPN Radio Chile host Fernando Solabarrieta stated he was a ‘firm candidate’ for the job.
Fast forward just under a month, and that’s all in the past now, as El Confidencial in Spain are reporting why Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager ended up turning down the chance.
While Francis Cagigao, the sporting director of Chile’s FA, did contact Lillo, the Tolosa born man’s idea was ‘to continue in Manchester’ despite being ‘tempted’ by the offer.
With that out in the open and the assistant ‘not clear about leaving Guardiola’, the South American country appointed Martín Lasarte on February 10th, who so happens to be the manager ‘who precisely replaced Lillo on the Real Sociedad bench’ back in 2009.
The Manchester City manager has always spoken highly of the former Almería and Real Oviedo manager, and he can now count on him staying by his side at the Etihad for the foreseeable future.
