Barcelona Hall of Fame: Pep Guardiola
Josep Guardiola Sala, born in the Santpedor district of Barcelona on the 18th of January 1971 is renowned as one of the best defensive midfielders ever to play football after a glorious career with his local club Barcelona where he was a key part of Johan Cruyff’s “Dream Team”. Guardiola is a name who is synonymous with Barca given his fine playing career for them and his subsequent return as B team manager, rise to first team manager and success in management to date. Guardiola is an inspiration to any young Spanish footballer and Barcelona youth products Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Cesc Fabregas have all named him as a boyhood hero of theirs. Make no mistake; Pep Guardiola is a true great of the game.
Barcelona:
Guardiola joined Barcelona at the age of 13, spending six years rising through the youth ranks at the club before being promoted to the first team aged just 19 after Barca manager Johan Cruyff had spotted the youngster playing on the right side of midfield for the youth team and decided that Guardiola could be a great defensive midfielder. Guardiola showed great vision and passing skills for a defensive midfielder despite being slow and goalshy. Guardiola made just four appearances in his first season with the first team and spent some time playing for Barca’s “B” side instead. However, by the 1991/92 season Cruyff had decided that Guardiola was good enough to be a regular in his first team and Guardiola didn’t disappoint, proving a key player for a side that won both the league and the European Cup. Guardiola’s place in the first team was undisputed after that and he remained a regular for his nine remaining seasons at the club although injury ruled him out of most of the 1997/98 season. In his remaining years at the club Guardiola picked up another 5 league titles, 2 Spanish Cups, 4 Spanish Super Cups, a European Cup Winner’s Cup and 2 European Super Cup’s. He was also named in UEFA’s All-Star Team of the Season twice. Guardiola, named Barcelona captain just a few seasons after breaking into the team, remained at the club throughout the reigns of three different managers and rejected extremely expensive offers to join other European giants the likes of Parma and Roma. Finally, in 2001, after 17 years on the club’s books, and at the age of 31, Guardiola announced his decision to leave the club to try his luck in a different country. A capacity crowd watched his send-off in a game with Celtic as the club legend left the club.
After Barca:
Guardiola was courted by a lot of clubs following his departure from Barcelona, including a bunch of Premiership sides. But he decided to move to Italian side Brescia. The midfielder shockingly failed to make an impact for Brescia and soon moved onto Roma where he failed to break into the first team and he ended up returning to Brescia. A drug ban was also inflicted upon the player during his unsuccessful Italian stint, leaving his Italian career in shambles. Guardiola left Serie A after just two years and, once again snubbing interest from top Premiership clubs, moved to Qatar to play out his career for Al-Ahli. Guardiola excelled in Qatar’s Stars League, impressing whenever he played. He later went on to spend six months at Mexican club Dorados where he impressed once more before finally retiring at the age of 35 years old.
International Career:
Guardiola made his Spain debut in 1992 and soon after captained his country to a Olympics win which led to him being voted the best under-21 player in the world. Guardiola was a regular member of the Spain squad after this, spending a decade pulling the strings in midfield although injuries and falling outs with his international managers led to Guardiola missing out on a few international competitions. He made 67 appearances for Spain, scoring 5 goals in the process – almost as many as he had scored in over 250 games for Barcelona.
Move into coaching:
Guardiola wasted no time in getting his coaching badges and getting into coaching, returning to Barcelona to take over their “B” team in 2007. Guardiola swiftly led the B team to promotion from the Third Division; a feat, along with his legendary status at the club, that led to Barca president Joan Laporta declaring that Guardiola would become manager of the first team in the summer of 2008, taking over the reigns from Frank Rijkaard.
Manager of Barcelona:
Guardiola took over a team full of quality and was quick to make his mark on the team, making it clear which players he did not want whilst immediately setting transfer targets. He sold former key men Ronaldinho and Deco and attempted to sell striker Samuel Eto’o as he felt they were bad influences on the team whilst bringing in the likes of Manchester United’s Gerard Pique, Aliaksander Hleb from Arsenal and Daniel Alves and Seydou Keita from Sevilla. Guardiola suffered defeat in his first game as Barca manager as they shockingly lost to promoted side Numancia but the squad then embarked on a 20 game unbeaten run, scoring a lot of goals in a free-flowing 4-3-3 formation in the process and they flew to the Spanish league title. Barcelona also won the Copa del Rey with a victory over Athletic Bilbao in the final and beat Manchester United to the Champions League to secure a historic treble. Guardiola became the youngest manager to win the Spanish title and the first manager in Spain to win a treble. Barca players have revealed that Guardiola leads a regime with harder work than his predecessor Rijkaard did but is more personal with the players. At just 38 there is still a lot to come from Guardiola as a manager and he has a squad capable of achieving a hell of a lot for the coming years. The legend of Guardiola is far from over.
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