Jump to content

Pep Guardiola

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ZZbatam (talk | contribs) at 04:53, 27 January 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Pep Guardiola
File:Josep Guardiola.jpg
Personal information
Full name Josep Guardiola Sala
Position(s) Midfielder (retired)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 4 2006
Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Gold medal – first place 1992 Barcelona Team Competition

Template:Spanish name 2 Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala, pron. IPA: [ʑu'zɛp gwəɾ'ð̞jɔɫə], (born January 18, 1971) is a former Spanish football midfielder and current FC Barcelona coach. He spent the majority of his playing career at FC Barcelona, but also played for, among others, Brescia Calcio, AS Roma, Al-Ahli (Doha) and Dorados de Sinaloa. As an international Guardiola played for both Spain and Catalonia. After retiring as a player Guardiola became a coach. On May 8, 2008, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta announced that Guardiola would succeed Frank Rijkaard as the first team manager. He signed his contract on June 5th, 2008.[1]

Club career

FC Barcelona

Guardiola was a product of the planter barcelonista (FC Barcelona's youth academy), playing initially as junior with Gimnàstic de Manresa and FC Barcelona B [2]. Between 1990 and 2001 he made 379 appearances for FC Barcelona. This included 263 in La Liga[3]. He made senior La Liga debut for FC Barcelona on December 16 1990 in a 2-0 win against Cádiz C.F.. Playing as a defensive midfielder, he went onto become a key member of the Dream Team put together by Johan Cruyff, providing a local presence in a team made up of mainly Basque and foreign players. During his time at FC Barcelona he became a firm favourite with fans and helped the club win an impressive array of trophies including a European Cup title in 1992 and six La Liga titles and he also won the Cup Winner's Cup under Bobby Robson as well. In 1997 he succeeded José Mari Bakero as club captain. However a hamstring injury subsequently kept him out for a year. He made his final La Liga appearance for the club on June 17, 2001 in a 3-2 win against Valencia CF. He is regarded as a legend at the Camp Nou.

Serie A

After leaving FC Barcelona in 2001, he was linked with several clubs such as Newcastle, West Ham, Tottenham and Liverpool plus both Milan clubs but Guardiola joined first Brescia Calcio and then AS Roma in Serie A. However his time in Italy was unhappy and included a four month ban after testing positive for Nandrolone. Six years later in October 23, 2007, Guardiola was cleared on appeal of all charges that had led to the ban[4].

Dorados de Sinaloa

After a spell in Qatar with Al - Ahli from Doha he turned down a offer from Manchester City because they didn't offer him a long enough deal but in 2006 when Juan Manuel Lillo was appointed manager of Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa he recruited Guardiola to play for the club. He subsequently played for six months in Mexico. However in May 2006 Dorados was relegated to Primera División A and he retired as a player.

International career

Spain

In 1992 Guardiola captained Spain when they won the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. Between 1992 and 2001 Guardiola also played 47 times and scored 5 goals for the senior Spain team. He made his senior debut on October 14, 1992 in 0-0 with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in a World Cup qualifier. He was a member of the Spain team during the 1994 World Cup but fell out of favour with Javier Clemente and missed out on Euro 1996. Injury kept him out of the 1998 World Cup, but he later played at Euro 2000. He made his final appearance for Spain in 1-0 win in a friendly against Mexico on November 14, 2001[5][6].

Catalonia

Guardiola has also played for and been a strong advocate of the Catalonia national football team [7], as well as for the independence of Catalonia itself. Between 1995 and 2005 he played 7 times for Catalonia, playing in prestige friendlies against, among others, Nigeria[8].

Coaching career

Guardiola was appointed coach of FC Barcelona B on June 21, 2007. Under his guidance the team subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B play-offs.[9] FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta announced before the end of the 2007-08 season that Josep Guardiola would be appointed manager of FC Barcelona to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the season.[10]

After leading the 'B' side to promotion to Segunda División B, Guardiola revealed that Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o and others were not part of his plans for next season. By the time of the announcement, Guardiola had already offloaded full back Gianluca Zambrotta to Milan, forward Giovani Dos Santos to Tottenham and midfielder Edmilson to Villarreal.[11] Deco went to Chelsea FC, while the iconic Ronaldinho was sold to AC Milan. Lilian Thuram was going to Paris Saint-Germain, but the discovery of a heart condition put a stop to the move, and the veteran retired to tend to his health. Oleguer signed with Ajax Amsterdam, Santiago Ezquerro was released by Barcelona and Marc Crosas was sold to Celtic F.C.. The fate of Samuel Eto'o took much of the summer to unravel, with the Cameroonian linked with several clubs but Guardiola finally declared that he would stay after his dedication in training and participation in the pre-season.[12] More or less the same was the case with Eidur Gudjohnsen, following talks with Guardiola.[13]

Under Guardiola's new leadership several new signings were made. Dani Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from FC Sevilla, Martin Caceres from Villareal by way of Recreativo de Huelva and Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United. Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal FC, while Henrique Adriano Buss signed from Palmeiras, but was immediately loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen[14].

Guardiola's first competitive game as coach was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barcelona comfortably beat Polish club Wisla Krakow 4-0 at home. Barcelona was defeated 1-0 in Krakow but progressed with a 4-1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening match-day of the La Liga but the team then went on an undefeated streak of 21 matches to move to the top of the league in which they have a 12 point lead at the moment and secure advancement in the Champions League where they will play Lyon in the next round.[15]

Guardiola has shown preference to playing a 4-3-3 system, the same system used by Frank Rijkaard. In interviews with the press, his players stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with their new coach.

Coaching stats

Club Season League Cup Europe Total
W D L W D L W D L GP W D L %
FC Barcelona B 2007-2008 25 8 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 38 25 8 5 66%
FC Barcelona 2008-2009 18 2 1 4 0 0 5 1 2 31 25 3 3 80.6%
Career totals 41 10 6 4 0 0 5 1 2 69 50 11 8 71.7%

Honours

FC Barcelona

Spain

See also

References

  1. ^ www.fcbarcelona.cat
  2. ^ The lost boys of Barcelona: Ronald Atkin [1]
  3. ^ www.lfp.es
  4. ^ ESPNsoccernet - Europe - Guardiola finally cleared on doping charges
  5. ^ www.rsssf.com/
  6. ^ Spain stats
  7. ^ Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football (2003), Phil Ball
  8. ^ Catalonia results
  9. ^ www.fcbarcelona.cat
  10. ^ Guardiola relevará a Rijkaard a partir del 30 de junio - www.fcbarcelona.cat Template:Es icon
  11. ^ New Barcelona coach Guardiola declares Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Deco surplus to his requirements - www.iht.com
  12. ^ [2]
  13. ^ Gudjohnsen commits to Barca - football.co.uk
  14. ^ Henrique goes from Barça to Bayer Leverkusen - FCBarcelona.com
  15. ^ [3]

Template:Link FA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pep_Guardiola&oldid=266689528"