His paternal name is Guardiola
and his second name is Sala. Josep Pep Guardiola I Sala was born in January 18,
1971, he is a one of the best football coaches, and now he serves as a couch of
the German team Bayern Munich, he took the training of the team as successor of
Jupp Heynckes at the start of the season 2013-2014.
Guardiola spent the majority of
his playing as midfielder with FC Barcelona, and was one of the dream team formulations
for Johan Cruyff, when Barcelona won his first European Cup.
Guardiola played as international
player for Spain and for Catalans through friendly matches.
Guardiola played also for other
teams like Brescia, Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar, and Dorados de Sinaloa in
Mexico where he also attended the managing school.
During his playing in Italy, Guardiola
served a four month ban for a positive drug test, but in 2009 he was cleared of
wrongdoing twice on appeal by the courts of justice of the Italian football
federation and Anti-doping courts.
He became as a couch for FC Barcelona
B after retiring from playing and in the middle of 2008 Guardiola became the
couch of FC Barcelona A after succeeding the manager Frank Rijkaard. After that
he led Barcelona to win the treble of La Liga, The Copa del Rey, and the
Champions League through his first year with Barcelona. So he became the
youngest UEFA Champions League-winning manager.
After the first season with Guardiola,
Barcelona won Super Copa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA club world
cup, so he led them to win six trophies in six competitions through one year,
and thus Guardiola completed six trophies sextuple in two seasons.
Guardiola got the Catalan Parliament’s
Gold Medal Award in 2011as the highest honour, and then he received the FIFA
World Coach of the year 2011 award.
In 2012 he quit his career as coach
with Barcelona after leading the team to achieve 14 titles in 4 years during
his charge of Barcelona.
After that big famous teams tried
to sign with him like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester Unites, Manchester City,
PSG, Inter Milan, Ac Milan, and even the international Team of Qatar with the
highest salary in history of football but he refused them and signed with
Bayern Munich to be successor of Jupp Heynckes in 2013.
His Career as Player
FC Barcelona:
Guardiola joined the club at the
age of 13 and grew through the ranks at the youth academy for six years to make
his debut in 1990 against Cadiz CF.
Johan Cruyff pushed him as
defensive midfielder in the absence of Guillermo Amor, and to become then in
1991-1992 season a first team regular at the age of 20 years old. Guardiola
played a key role in winning the team La Liga and European Cup. Guardiola was
heralded by the prestigious Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo as the finest
player in the world under the age of 21.
Guardiola played his last match
with Barcelona in June 24, 2011 against Celta de Vigo. So he played 479 matches
through 12 seasons for Barcelona. He was called the hero and many players as
Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, and Cesc Fabregas said that Guardiola was their
hero and role model.
Serie A:
Guardiola moved in 2001 to
Brescia and then to Roma where he had unhappy times there by testing him for
positive Nandrolone. So he played 71 games in Italy.
Guardiola moved to Qatar choosing
to play with Al-Ahli with many famous stars play there like Batsituta, although
he rejected an offer from Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea. But he
seemed that Guardiola left his playing career.
Jaun Manuel Lillo recruited
Guardiola ton play for the Mexican club after being the manger of it in 2006, where
he played there for six month before retiring definitively from his career as player.
Guardiola was there also in managing school in Axocopan, Atlixco, Puebla.
His International career
Spain:
Guardiola first senior debut was
in October 14, 1992 against of Northern Ireland during World Cup qualifier in
which the game ended in draw 0-0. He became the captain of Spain during Barcelona
Olympic Games when they won the gold medal, where he played 47 games and scored
5 goals for Spain as midfielder player. Guardiola was a member in the Spain
team during the World cup in 1994, where the team reached to the quarter final
and lost in front of Italy 2-1. In 2001 he scored his last international goal
against Sweden in a draw 1-1 during his 45th appearance.
Catalonia:
Guardiola played for the
Catalonia football team and between the years 1995-2005 he played friendly
matches for it.
Coaching career
Barcelona B team:
Fc Barcelona appointed him as a
coach for B team on June 21, 2007 and Tito Vilanova was his assistant, so he
led the team to win Tercera Division group and qualified for Segundo Division B
playoffs in 2008.
FC Barcelona:
2008-2009 seasons
After Guardiola signing with Barcelona
first team he announced that Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto’o and others were not
part of his plans to form his team. So he offloaded Giovani dos Santos to
Tottenham Hotspur, Edmilson to Villareal, and Gianluca Zamrotta to AC Milan.
Guardiola first match was in the
third qualifying round of the Champions League, where he led his team to win
over the Polish Wista Krakow 4-0 but they lost in the 1-0 in the second leg.
In the opening match in La Liga
they lost in front of CD Numancia but they went on an undefeated streak for
over 20 games to rise to the top of the league. They beat their rival Real
Madrid 6-2 at Santiago Bernabeu. He led
then his team to win Copa de Ray on May 13, 2009 by defeating Athletic Bilbao
by 4-1.
Then he led his team to win the
Champions League over Manchester United by 2-0. Though Barcelona becomes the
first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, the league, and the European club titles
in the same year.
2009-2010 Season
During his second season,
Barcelona sold Eto’o and bought Ibrahimovic for $46 million, and many players left
the club like Guojohnson, Jorguera, etc.
On September, he led Barcelona to
get his 50th professional win over Malaga and then to win the FIFA
club World Cup champions.
Guardiola finished his year 2009
to win six trophies of Spanish League, Copa Del Ray, Champions League; Spanish
super Cup, European Super Cup, and Club World Cup, so be becomes the first coach
to do so.
2010-2011 seasons
In the third season Ibrahimovic
moved to AC Milan and Yaya Toure to Man City but they signed with Adrian from Sevilla,
David Villa from Valencia, and Mascherano from Liverpool. And in 2010 Guardiola
signed a contract with Barcelona for two years. He led Barcelona to win over
his rival Real Madrid by the leader of Mourinho by 5-0 in the Nou Camp Stadium.
So Barcelona won the la Liga title and the champion league over Manchester united
by 3-1.
2011-2012 seasons
The season started with the
moving three players who are Gabriel Milito, Jeffen Suarez, and Bojan Krkic. Barcelona
made two big contracts also with Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas. Barcelona reached
to the semifinal of the champion’s league but it lost against Chelsea and they
got only the Copa Del Ray.
His achievements were 14 trophies
over 4 seasons and thus he became the most successful coach in the history of
Barcelona.
His sabbatical
Guardiola took one year of
sabbatical to recover in New York.
Bayern Munich:
He signed in January 16, 2013
with Bayern Munich to be a successor to Jupp Heynckes, so his first training
season was in June 26.
Personal Life of Pep Guardiola
Guardiola was the son of Dolors
and Valenti and his family have four children he was bigger than his younger
brother and smaller than his two older sisters.
Guardiola is nonreligious man and
he met his wife at the age of 18 where they took the birth of three children
named Maria, Marius, and Valentina.
After his signing with Bayern
Munich he practiced German for 5 hours per day to improve his level of speaking
in order to communicate well with his new players in Bayern Munich.
