Italy should not see it as an "impossible dream" for Pep Guardiola to be their new head coach.

That is the view of Italian Minister for Sport, Andrea Abodi.

Guardiola has left Manchester City after an extraordinarily successful 10-year stint, in which he won 20 trophies, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss seems set to take a break from football, but he has been linked to potentially taking over the Italian national team.

Italy are in search of a new head coach after Gennaro Gattuso resigned following their failure to qualify for the World Cup.

And Abodi does not think they should consider Guardiola as outside the realms of possibility.

"We'd have to understand if Guardiola wants to allow himself this, considering how much of Italy is in his life journey and I believe in his sentiments too," Abodi told Sky TG.

"He is one of the possible options, certainly not an impossible dream. He is a very important coach, but the job of a national team coach is different, and we'd have to see if an extraordinary club tactician wants to also become an extraordinary national team coach.

"I think this is a challenge that sooner or later Guardiola will want to do. It’s not about money, but ambition and dreams."

Guardiola is the only manager to win four English top-flight titles in a row, doing so between 2020-21 and 2023-24, and the only one to oversee a 100-point Premier League season (2017-18). 

He also has the best points-per-game (2.28) of any manager to take charge of at least 20 games in Premier League history.