Theres only one Josep Guardiola Sala
And he comes from Santpedor
Guardiola played as a
defensive midfielder and 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, and four successive
La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. He later captained the team from 1997 to 2001. He then played for
Brescia and
Roma in Italy,
Al-Ahli in Qatar, and
Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico while training to be a manager. While playing in Italy, he served a four-month ban for a positive drug test, although he was cleared of wrongdoing twice on appeal in 2009 before the
Courts of Justice of the
Italian Football Federation and the Federal Anti-Doping Courts of the
Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
[3] Guardiola was capped 47 times for
Spain, winning the
Olympic Gold Medal in 1992, and appeared at the
1994 FIFA World Cup. He also played friendly matches for
Catalonia. A
deep-lying playmaker, he was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision of the game, ball control, technical ability, passing range and calm composure.
As a manager, Guardiola won 14 trophies in the first four years of his managing career. He is one of the most successful managers in the world and is considered by a number of players, managers and commentators to be one of the best managers in the world.
After retiring as a player, Guardiola became coach of
Barcelona B, and in 2008 he succeeded
Frank Rijkaard as the first team manager.
[8] In his
first season as manager, Guardiola guided Barcelona to a
treble, winning
La Liga, the
Copa del Rey and the
UEFA Champions League. In doing so, Guardiola became the
youngest manager to win the Champions League. The
following season, Guardiola led Barcelona to win the
Supercopa de España, the
UEFA Super Cup, and the
FIFA Club World Cup, bringing his tally to the maximum of six trophies out of six competitions in one year, thus achieving the
sextuple. In 2011, Guardiola was awarded the
Catalan Parliament's Gold Medal, their highest honour.
[9] That same year, Guardiola was also named the
FIFA World Coach of the Year.
[10] On 30 June 2012, Guardiola announced his departure from Barcelona, after winning 14 trophies in just four years in charge of the club.
After a sabbatical period, Bayern Munich announced on 16 January 2013 that Guardiola would join the club as manager for the
2013–14 season following the retirement of
Jupp Heynckes. In his first season at the club, Guardiola won the
Bundesliga, the
DFB-Pokal, the
UEFA Super Cup and the
FIFA Club World Cup.
On 1 February 2016,
Manchester City announced that Guardiola would be replacing
Manuel Pellegrini as head coach in July.
To the tune of Firestarter by Prodigy