Pep Guardiola is confident that Erling Haaland will become a future captain for Manchester City by learning off other key leaders in the current squad.

The Norwegian is entering his third full season with the Club and, after agreeing to a new ten-year contract in January 2025, is set for a long and fruitful spell at the Etihad Stadium.

Guardiola believes Haaland will wear the armband for City in the future if he follows the examples set by some of his current team-mates.

The boss revealed that he had decided on the leadership group for the first time in his managerial career ahead of our FIFA Club World Cup opener against Wydad AC in Philadelphia.

And Haaland, he feels, is on the right track to join that cohort but needs to keep learning the unique demands that being a captain involves.

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Asked about selecting his leadership group, Guardiola said: “I’m the manager, this season for the first time in my career I decided on who would be my captains.

“I didn’t like what happened last season and this year I decided who will represent the team.

“I just decided this season, sometimes I want to be the boss and this season I decided to do it.

“I chose the four captains and after this tournament, this Club World Cup maybe we will choose one or two more.

On Haaland, he added: “First of all, he’s so young but he has to start to learn what it means to be a captain because hopefully he’ll be here for many years and sooner or later he will take that position as the first one.

“When you have Bernardo [Silva], Ruben [Dias], Rodri, [Ilkay] Gundogan who was an unbelievable captain for us in the year of the treble, in the two seasons, he will learn.

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“Especially because he’s respected and an important figure for us. It’s not necessary to say what will happen on the pitch but thinking about the future, he has to start to learn what’s best for the team, captain at the end it can be complicated but at the same time so simple.

“You have to always put the team and your mates always ahead of you and ask all the time what’s best for the team, when you decide what’s best for the team then you never make a mistake ever.

“This is what you have to do as captains. Bernardo has been an incredible figure for us, nine years here, never injured, always in the bad moments makes the step up, an example on the pitch, when they have to say something to me, he says it.

“Ruben and Rodri have been the same, they will guide the new players, because there’ll be problems during this part of the season, always it happens but it’s more than fine.

“It’s ‘okay, let’s try to find a solution that’s best for the team’ and these are three or four players on the pitch who have huge personality.

“When things go wrong or in the bad moments they say: ‘Okay guys let’s do it, we can’t accept it’ and they step up. That’s the reason why I chose them.”

Hear Pep’s press conference in full via the video above…

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