Happy 'Pep Guardiola linked with Brazil' Day to all who celebrate! Last year the links came in November, this year the roaming annual holiday has come early in March. With Brazil sacking manager Dorival Junior on the back of a humiliating defeat to Argentina. They have already been shot down by Carlo Ancelotti this week (again), so naturally reports have moved on to their next target - Guardiola. But will he take over Brazil and leave Manchester City ? This is not the first time Guardiola has been linked with one of international football's most attractive, and pressured, jobs. If Guardiola was to enter the international arena, you would expect the options are limited. He always insists that his success is down to having brilliant players, and with even less time to impose his detailed philosophy on an international squad, he surely needs a talented group ready to kick on and win. Brazil generally fit that brief despite recent struggles. Argentina would present a romantic reunion with Lionel Messi but they have Lionel Scaloni and are the current World Champions. His history with Spain and stance on Catalan independence may make the current European Champions a difficult match, while France will be looking for a manager after the World Cup in 2026 and Germany have tied Julian Nagelsmann down until 2028. England would make sense and they approached him in the summer before he committed his future to City, however they wanted someone to take over immediately, with Thomas Tuchel selected instead. Guardiola insisted on seeing out his City contract until this summer so was not considered - and then he added two more years to that City deal. His long-term stance is that he commits to the contracts he signs, so if Brazil have any hopes of tempting him for the 2026 World Cup they would have to get him to break that commitment. Guardiola has expressed a keen desire to test himself at the Club World Cup this summer, which may help any future international job, but with a contract until 2027 at the Etihad it is hard to see how Brazil would tempt him. Other comments from Guardiola include his insistence that he will manage City in any division pending the outcome of their 115 Premier League charges, and that the struggles this season made him more inclined to stay and oversee a rebuild of the squad. When Brazil were reported to have approached Guardiola last November, the president of their federation had to publicly deny that and Guardiola joked that nobody would want him given City's poor form at the time. It feels extremely unlikely that Guardiola will go to Brazil this time, so soon after signing his new deal at City. But he has been close to the job in the past and they have always held a keen interest. And Guardiola says his next job after City will almost certainly be an international one. "I wouldn't have the energy to start again at another club, the whole process… Maybe with a national team, but that's different," he said in December. 12 months ago, he said the one thing left for him to achieve in football was with a national team, saying: "I would like to train a national team for a World Cup or a European Championship. I would like that. "I would like to have the experience of living through a World Cup, or a Euro or a Copa América, or whatever it is. I would like that. I don't know when that would be, if that is five, 10, 15 years from now but I would like to have the experience of being a manager in a World Cup." ----- Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories. And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts , and you can also watch along on YouTube .