Legendary head coach Josep Guardiola, recognized as the best coach in world football today, won the 2011 Manager of the Year at the FIFA Ballon d'Or Awards. The combination of possession and short passes is his style, and "attack is the best defense" is the best spokesperson. Guardiola's coaching career has undoubtedly been successful, and his success is inextricably linked to Barcelona, both during his coaching career and as a player.
Player period Guardiola
Player career
Barcelona "Dream Team"
Guardiola was born in Catalonia, Spain and grew up in Barcelona. At the age of 13, he joined the Barcelona youth team for training, and at the age of 19, he was appreciated by the legendary coach Cruyff of the "Godfather of Barca" and was promoted to the barca first team. That year was 1990, when Guardiola stepped onto camp Nou for the first time.
Cruyff and Guardiola
Under Cruyff's tutelage, Guardiola gradually grew into a member of Barca's "Dream Team", focusing on the back position, an indispensable midfield core for Barca, and one of the main players of the Spanish national team. At the age of 21, he helped Barcelona win the first Champions League title in the team's history as the core player of the team.
Guardiola
Guardiola played for Barca for a total of twelve years, winning 16 trophies for the team, but it was not all smooth sailing; in the 1994 Champions League final, he lost 4-0 to then Serie A giants AC Milan. For the last four years of the team, he remained the captain and was an indispensable mainstay of the team, but due to the constant injury, Guardiola had to leave Barca after twelve years of playing in 2001.
Post-Barça period
After leaving Barca, Guardiola has been in a number of teams; Brescia, Roma in Serie A, and later even a long way to join Ahmed in the Middle East, mexico's Di San Lanoa, the situation can not be compared with at Barca. In Mexico di San Lanoa slowly turned into a head coach, his career slowly ushered in the second spring.
Coaching Barca
Coaching period
Barcelona "Dream Team III"
Fate is so magical, after retiring guardiola came to Barcelona again, in 2007-2008 he was the head coach of Barcelona B team at FC Barcelona, leading the team to promotion to La Liga. On 8 May 2008, Barcelona president Laporta announced that Guardiola had replaced Rijkaard as Barcelona's manager, officially kicking off the first step in his legendary coach. Perhaps influenced by his division Cruyff, he advocated offensive football, possession and short pass coordination.
Guardiola and Messi
In his first season in charge of Barca (2008-2009), Guardiola led the team to three trophies: La Liga, copa del Rey and Champions League; with this he became the youngest champions manager in Champions League history. In the second season (2009-2010), he led the team to three trophies: the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, achieving the "six champions" in the history of football. In the third season (2010-2011), Barca won five more titles: La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.
Pointing out Messi
During guardiola's four years in charge, Barca won 14 titles, creating the myth of Barca's dream three teams. During this period, Barcelona's Messi, Xavi and Iniesta were promoted to the world's top players, and in 2010, the three won the top three of the Ballon d'Or. Henry and David Villa, who joined later, realized their dream of winning the championship under him, and they all respected him and regarded him as a "mentor".
Due to poor health, Guardiola left Barcelona at the end of the 2011–12 season, after which he recuperated at home for almost a year.
Coaching Bayern
Bayern Munich period
Guardiola became Bayern Munich's manager in the 2013–2014 season with an annual salary of €16 million. He brought Barca's style of possession to Bayern and was relatively successful in the league, with Bayern successfully defending the title seven rounds before the end of the league. However, this tactic was tested in Europe, where Bayern lost 1-0 away to rival Real Madrid 4-away and 4-0 at home in the Champions League final four, humiliated by a 0-5 aggregate score, which was also the biggest defeat of Guardiola's coaching career. His tactical play was questioned by the German media, and the possession tactics were defeated by Real Madrid's rapid defense.
Although Guardiola brought three league titles to the team during his time at Bayern, Bayern lost to the final four in the Champions League: losing to Real Madrid in the 2013-2014 season, Barca in the 2014-2015 season and Atletico Madrid in the 2015-2016 season.
Coaching Manchester City
Manchester City period
On 1 February 2016, Guardiola officially became the head coach of Manchester City and signed a three-year contract. He led City to a six-game winning streak in the 2016-2017 season, but unfortunately the team was in poor shape and finished third in the league, which was also Guardiola's first season without a title.
In the 2017-2018 season, Guardiola led Manchester City to a successful league title with 32 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats accumulating 100 points, which also broke the scoring record in the history of the Premier League. In the Champions League, Manchester City were eliminated by Liverpool in the quarter-finals. The following year (2018-2019), Guardiola led the team to defend the title successfully, beating Liverpool to win the league championship with a high score of 98 points and one point, and then led the team to win the League Cup and the FA Cup to achieve the "Triple Crown". The 2019-2020 season was in poor shape, with the league, cup and European competitions empty-handed.
In the 2020-2021 season, Guardiola led Manchester City to win the league title again, and the Champions League reached the final, whether Manchester City can win the first Champions League trophy in the club's history on May 30, and whether Guardiola can break the situation of no Champions League after leaving Barcelona, we wait and see.
It can be seen that in Guardiola's football career, Cruyff is the person who has the greatest influence on him, and he was promoted to the barca first team at the age of 19, and under his tutelage, he grew into the core player of Barça's "dream team". This had a big impact on his later players and even his coaching career. As Guardiola said at the Cruyff Memorial Event: "Without Cruyff, there would be no me today, and for me, he is my mentor and best friend." A good coach can influence several people, a legendary coach can even influence a generation, this is the inheritance.