The Pep Guardiola Story

Source

Image Source

Today we are focusing on the footballing side of Pep Guardiola's life from player to manager.

Playing Carrer

Image Source

Like all great managers, they started playing the beautiful game, at the age of 13 Pep Guardiola joined the Barcelona academy, just to understand what a great talent he was it took him 6 years to break into the first team making his senior debut. Pep was a regular his name was always part of the starting 11, he played his heart and soul for the team and helped lift the European Cup along with the La Liga.

He followed up his next season with continued success under new manager Bobby Robson with added silver to the Barcelona trophy cabinet, Barcelona won the Europen Winners Cup, Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa, with also this success and on-field leadership, he was named Captain, however, he suffered and battled with injuries that eventually saw him leave the club in 2001.

He found himself at an Italian club called Brescia, he was privileged enough to play alongside Roberto Baggio, it wasn't long that he saw himself move to Roma, although not smooth sailing at aroma he was issued a four-month ban for having nandrolone in his system. he later appealed and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

2003 saw him move to Qatar to play for Al-Ahil while he was there he turned down offers from Manchester United and Chelsea.

Managerial Carrer.

Image Source

Pep started his coaching career in June 2007 with Barcelona, he coached the B Team he started off by winning the division title and divisions B playoffs in 2008 and eventually coming out as winners. He as appointed Barcelona first team manager, his first task was to let go players that weren't cutting it in the club, he signed quality players with the likes of Alves, Pique joining, in the first season, he won the treble and something none can forget he claimed six trophies in the 2009-10 season. He enjoyed a lot more success with the club before leaving them in 2012 he racked up 14 trophies in his four-year spell with the club making him the most successful club in Barcelona history.

In 2013 he decided that he would move to Germany to manage Bayern Munich not a bad club to go to straight after Barcelona, it wasn't the best start has he lost his first match in Super Cup Germany. He then went on and won the UFEA Super cup and club world cup in the same year and further to that he added to Bayern's title chase title number 23, his last season saw him win the DFB-Pokal

2016 saw him land at Man City, his first year reminded us that he is human, it took time to adjust to the English way of playing ending the season trophyless. He learned from his mistakes by reinforcing in the areas he needed to focus on and then he won the league and the Carabao cup.

To the fan's joy, he signed a contract extension with that he added more talent to his club like Riyad Mahrez. He then won the EFL Cup, FA Cup, and his second league title. He continued to see success with Man city with not many sides been able to challenge his boys. The current contract runs until 2021 there is a lot been said in the media will he stay or will he go. I personally believe he should stay based on his quality and the attractive football his team can play.