Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola

Josep Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Premier League club Manchester City. He spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team that won the club’s first European Cup in 1992. He was capped 47 times for the Spanish national team and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as well as at UEFA Euro 2000.

About Pep Guardiola in brief

Summary Pep GuardiolaJosep Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Premier League club Manchester City. He spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team that won the club’s first European Cup in 1992. He was capped 47 times for the Spanish national team and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as well as at UEFA Euro 2000. After retiring as a player, Guardiola briefly coached Barcelona B, with whom he won a Tercera División title, and assumed control of the first-team in 2008. In his first season as the first team manager, he guided Barcelona to the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League. In 2011, after leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League double, Guardiola was awarded the Catalan Parliament’s Gold Medal, their highest honour. He ended his four-year Barcelona stint in 2012 with 14 honours, a club record. After a sabbatical period, Bayern Munich announced Guardiola would join the club as manager in 2013. He left the Bavarians for Manchester City in 2016, and guided them to a Premier League title in his second campaign in charge, breaking numerous domestic records as the team became the first to attain 100 league points. He won a second consecutive Premier League and EFL Cup the following season, aswell as the FA Cup, becoming the first manager to win the domestic treble in English men’s football.

Guardiola is considered to be one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga,. the Bundesliga and the Premier League. He later captained the team from 1997 until his departure from the club in 2001. He has also had stints with Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar, and Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico. The prestigious Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21. In the 1996–97 season, Guardiola won three cups: the CopA del Rey, the Supercopa de España and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. He also won the Champions League with AC Milan in 1996, again in 1996 in Athens and again in Athens in 1996. In 1997, he was named as Barcelona captain under Louis van Gaal, but a calf muscle injury left him out of the squad. In this time he was replaced by Michael Laudrup, who had left the club by the time of the 1997 Champions League final. He went on to play in the 1996 European Cup final against AC Milan, but was forced to retire due to injury. He then captained Barcelona again in the 1998 Champions League Final against Inter Milan. In 2000, he won the UEFA Super Cup with Barcelona. In 2002, he captained Spain at the World Cup in Brazil. In 2004, he played in the UEFA European Cup Final against Real Madrid.