Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

by Balague, Guillem

  Guardiola shyly celebrated the first goal, scored in the sixth minute. Pedro was the scorer, tapping in a rebound in the box. And the coach went back to his seat on the bench where he didn’t move till five minutes later when he stood up to clap young Montoya, the right back for the night, after erring a cross from the wing.

  Messi got the ball, around the twentieth minute and Pep, back to his privileged seat, shouted to nobody in particular, ‘Look at him, look at him.’ The Argentinian scored after receiving a pass from Iniesta.

  Guardiola jumped from the bench, arms raised, clapped, turned around and gave Tito Vilanova a big hug.

  Equally effusively, he looked for the physical trainer Aureli Altimira after the third goal. Xavi had held off a defender and left the ball for Pedro on the edge of the box, who finished with a low, left-footed strike into the left-hand corner of the net. While Pep was hugging Aureli, Tito joined them and so did other members of the technical staff – clearly transmitting an image with a message. ‘What are they doing? What are they doing!!??’ an exuberant Pep kept asking Tito.

  The two friends were trying to kill some intentioned rumours about their relationship but it was also a celebration of a feast of football in which all the right decisions had been made – of a return to common sense, to basics. Every player was in his place. Iniesta in the midfield, Alexis and Pedro back in the eleven because they put more pressure to the rival build-up, and could help Messi more than Tello, who stayed on the bench all game, and Cuenca, who had not been called up.

  Pep’s last instructions had a certain symbolism. He asked Pinto, always in goal in the Spanish Cup, to kick the ball quickly and long after an Athletic corner. The goalie, even though not the smoothest with his feet, put the ball down and played it short and to a centre back positioned on the right of the box. Then the team performed a big piggy-in-the-middle till the referee whistled for the end of the match. It finished 3-0 to Barcelona.

  It was the fourteenth title out of a possible nineteen in the Guardiola era (or the fifteenth, since Pep likes to count the promotion of the B team as a title – in his eyes, one of the most important). It is unprecedented.

  Guardiola came out of his seat and went to shake Marcelo Bielsa’s hand. He returned to the bench to hug each one of the technical staff and players. The Athletic players received his gestures of consolation and then Guardiola retreated, to allow his players to take centre stage.

  He did not climb the stairs to the balcony to receive the cup. Listen to his memories of that night:

  ‘Carles, injured, took the decision to let Xavi lift the trophy: the same as he did with Abidal at Wembley.’

  ‘You get it,’ Xavi said. ‘No, you get it,’ Puyol insisted. ‘No, you do.’ The whole of Spain was waiting and watching as Xavi finally picked up the cup, raised it and offered it to Puyol.

  ‘Carles is a great captain, he is always proving that by example. He helped me a lot, especially with the new guys. He saves you lots of work because he explains a lot of things for you. The important thing in a dressing room is to have good people.’

  Pep thanked the fans for their presence and walked towards the tunnel and to the dressing room as the Barcelona players were walking around the pitch with the trophy.

  ‘I thought I had done enough, that the party belonged to them. I was looking forward to going inside to talk to Tito, Manel …’

  A few minutes later he returned to the pitch, without his jacket, to do the ‘sardana of the champions’.

  ‘Paco [Seirul.lo, a football veteran and the team’s physical coach] always destroys our circle with his poor hip, it is not what it used to be! We used to do it much better, we would hug, arms around the shoulders and go round. Now we hold hands, we have lost faculties. But it is a lovely gesture. And in the centre of it, there was a Catalan and a Basque flag …’

  After the sardana, the coach left the pitch, now with a big grin. It had been a good day at the office.

  In the dressing room, when the players returned, Pep chatted amicably, holding the cup.

  ‘I always find them pretty, the cups. I like them. Some more than others, but I like them. I touch them, I caress them …’

  Messi crossed paths with Pep and, stepping aside from boots, plastic bottles, towels and bins filled with ice, they hugged again.

  ‘The players wanted to give me a present, but I told them I just wanted the cup. At that point, in the sanctity of the dressing room, I have a huge feeling of gratitude, not just towards Messi, to everybody. Leo was happy, we were all happy. While hugging Messi I could see Alexis sending a message on his phone. It always happens, players want to share those moments, that happiness with their people.’

  In the first relaxed chat with his people, even in the press conference, everybody could notice his sense of relief, too.

  ‘I am very joyful. To be able to finish with a victory always gives you a touch more peace, tranquillity. Before the game I thought nothing would change my opinion of everything we have done, but ending up winning a title is better: for the next two months, for the future, because it means the team has qualified for the Spanish Super Cup …’

  And then, it was time to return to the hotel and celebrate, to enjoy a few beers with the relatives. Before closing the door behind him, people, fans, admirers stopped him for a word, to get a piece of him, to touch him. Carles Puyol, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, came to his rescue.

  ‘When they are dressed like that, it becomes dangerous.’

  When Pep returned home, for the first time in a long time there were no more games to prepare for.

  The week of Guardiola’s departure, Gabriele Marcotti wrote in the Wall Street Journal that, whatever his next destination, ‘it wouldn’t be fair or realistic to ask Pep to replicate Barça in another country. What has happened at the Catalan club is the perfect storm in which Guardiola has been a crucial ingredient, but not the only one.’

  Pep knows that better than anyone and now felt it was time to distance himself from it all. He decided to take a sabbatical, a year that started with visits to Israel, Croatia, Singapore, Indonesia, and finally settling for a few months in New York with his young family. He knows how Barcelona views the world, but, as he did after he retired as a player, he needed to discover again how the world views Barcelona. It is true, he thinks, that the institution is more than a club; it’s true and definitive that the style he believes in and has helped establish at the club is a winning one, but is any of it exportable?

  It will be emotionally impossible for him to contest Barcelona for titles and domestic space, and only a particular club like Athletic de Bilbao, with its policy of recruiting only Basque players, could perhaps attract him. ‘Coach in Spain? Maybe in few more years …’ he says. In his last months at Barcelona he started talking with admiration about the German league, influenced by Raúl, who succeeded at Shalke 04 and told him all about the direct football, the big clubs, the atmosphere, the full stadiums (none of the half-empty and soulless Getafe or Zaragoza or Mallorca visits) …

  When Pep left Barcelona as a player, many expected him to go to England or Italy, but he ended up playing in Qatar and Mexico. So nobody should try to guess his new destination: ‘I will let passion take me somewhere else to be able to transmit it. Without it, I cannot coach, with me you can tell. Maybe I should go where I cannot win titles; perhaps that would make me grow as a coach. I live with my doubts, I don’t feel better than others only because I won titles.’

  Two things are certain: he will coach abroad at some point and he will do so after resting for twelve months. A national side, perhaps. ‘I like the German League for the country, the way they organise the game, the stadia, to learn the language; the Premier League has got something very special about it; France is a great country, too, to live with the family; in the Arab countries there are marvellous people …’

  A lot of former Italian players of Pep’s generation have an influence in the biggest clubs in Serie A and would welcome him. Accordin
g to the Italian press, during his sabbatical AC Milan honorary president Silvio Berlusconi wanted to offer Pep a one-year contract, a €15 million salary and a free hand to sell and buy players.

  But Guardiola, as he himself has admitted, wants to be seduced. And not with money.

  In the middle of his last season, Pep used a short break in the calendar to travel back to Brescia to see friends – and visited the club’s Rigamonti stadium where he once used to play. A flag was hanging on the wall – ‘Pep, orgoglio del passato, sogno per il future’ (Pep, pride of the past, dream of the future). Brescia are now in Serie B, yet Pep did not mind admitting that he would love to be their manager at some point. He wants to pay them back for the faith they showed in him after being rejected by Juventus and others, for all their support during the doping accusations, where nobody at the modest Italian club doubted him for a second.

  But there is a special attraction for the Premier League, an unfulfilled dream. In his final years as a player he was offered to every big English club, including Arsenal. Their manager, Arsène Wenger, told his agent he preferred to recruit younger footballers and other clubs made other excuses, so he was never able to compete in the British Isles. It has remained an ambition of Pep’s: to feel a part of football in England, of that uniquely passionate way of living the game, to take part in the liturgies that he so admires. He will almost certainly coach in England one day.

  Some of his best friends are convinced that if Manchester United had already come calling, he wouldn’t have named his long break a ‘sabbatical’ but a rest. But people like Alex Ferguson don’t know how to walk away, even though sometimes they might tease us with mention of a possible departure.

  As soon as Pep confirmed he was leaving Barcelona, all sorts of rumours came to the fore. A recurrent theme was a possible contract with the English FA for the role of national coach. Although the Football Association did not contact Guardiola, an intermediary did try and broker a deal. He told the FA that Pep was interested, and told Pep that the FA was thinking about it. At some point, the intermediary was tested: let’s organise a meeting, he was asked. But that did not take place.

  Throughout Pep’s last three seasons at Barcelona, Chelsea tried to convince him to take over at Stamford Bridge. The financial offers were growing with each attempt: €10 million a year, €13 million, even €15 million according to certain sources. But Roman Abramovich, fascinated and seduced by the football practised at the Camp Nou, soon learnt that he would have to offer something else to bring him to west London: a structure and a squad that would allow for that style of play.

  Chelsea’s Russian owner has met Txiki Beguiristain three times since the former football director of Barcelona left the club in June 2010. Abramovich wanted Txiki to structure the club but also to serve as a platform for the arrival of Guardiola. Beguiristain understood his role, but felt that Abramovich was mostly just looking for another adviser, not so much as a football model. There wasn’t really an executive role offered, as Abramovich wanted to maintain his influence, so there was no common ground or agreement reached.

  Undeterred, Abramovich continued thinking of ways to attract Pep. Perhaps the most adventurous proposal came in the summer of 2011, just after Barcelona had won the Champions League final. Guardiola didn’t want to hear from any club at that point as he had already agreed to stay one more year at Barça – despite the growing number of doubts creeping into his mind.

  But Abramovich, having decided to let Carlo Ancelotti go, wanted to talk to Guardiola face to face. The list of replacements for the Italian coach also included André Villas-Boas, José Mourinho and Guus Hiddink. But Pep was at the top of that list. Michael Emenalo, technical director at the club and friendly with Tito Vilanova – whom he once played with at Lleida – spoke with both Pep and his assistant during that summer. Finally, Guardiola was invited to Abramovich’s yacht in Monaco at the end of June: a meeting that would have to take place in total secrecy.

  Pep wasn’t committing to a meeting. After two weeks of waiting for an answer, the Chelsea owner received the message he least wanted to hear: that the Barcelona coach has declined the invitation. Pep sensed that if he went to Chelsea, then there was a chance he could get his head turned – and why take that risk? The following week, Villas-Boas was the guest on Abramovich’s yacht.

  Pep’s message might have included an extra. The intermediary who was putting him in touch with Chelsea thought it would have been a good idea if Abramovich appointed an interim coach for the 2011–12 season. Guardiola could then tell the Russian owner halfway through that campaign if he was leaving Barcelona – allowing him to prepare for his arrival. It’s a good job that ultimately that idea was not put to the Russian owner because, up until the end of April 2012, there would have been not one but two clubs hanging on for Pep to make a decision.

  Abramovich didn’t give up, though. He was aware Pep was seriously considering leaving Barcelona and, after sacking André Villas-Boas in March 2012, he thought it would be a good moment to renew contact with the Catalan coach. The plan was clear: Abramovich wanted to sign Rafa Benítez for three months, rescue a season that threatened to collapse and give the team to Guardiola in the summer.

  But the meeting with the former Liverpool manager, who wanted a long-term commitment, did not convert into a proper offer and the job was handed temporarily to Roberto di Matteo, and, after winning the Champions League, for two more years.

  While all that was developing, Guardiola didn’t want to hear from Chelsea or anybody else – he didn’t want his world unsettled – and he made sure Abramovich got the message. He was going to tell the club, the players, the world, that he was leaving and then he was taking a sabbatical. Without having a particular team in mind, it was suggested to him that, while he was away in New York, he could at least start meeting and planning with his next club, whichever that might be, start identifying signings, planning organisational changes to lay the groundwork before he joined. But Pep, having just said his farewell to his beloved Barcelona, only wanted to detox from football.

  Guardiola measures success in different ways from most coaches. His experience as a player, his bitter departure from Barcelona in 2000 and his experience in Italy made him stronger. He values happiness above anything else but, at the same time, doesn’t ignore the fact that money gives you the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want. His managerial career will be assessed not by titles won, but because he did it his own way.

  He needs the new club to offer him cariño, an expression that doesn’t exist in English, a concept between friendship and love, respect and commitment. Affection is perhaps the closest.

  After a few months away from football, after some long walks in New York, Guardiola will start thinking about what happens next – and he will recover the capacity to want to imagine what happens next. What he wants to do when he grows up.

  As a player, Guardiola learnt to hide his private life; most players do. Discovering what they like, what they do, is a little step away from using it against them. ‘Public opinion is cruel, but I like the same as everybody: wine, reading, the family.’ Success, extreme success, had allowed the public to think that Pep, his image, his private life, were public property. Sometimes he dreams of having failed, or tries to imagine what that would be like, even how healthy that could be.

  ‘From failure you learn ten times more. Victory gives you ten minutes of peace, but then it makes you stupid. In victory you have to realise what is not going right. I have many fears and insecurities, I don’t like people that can and offer to sort everybody’s life. I want to be happy in my microcosm.’

  ‘It can be put very simply,’ argues one of the people who has had the greatest influence on Pep: ‘Guardiola fights against himself in the same way that Barça fights against Barça. The club is never happy with itself, is it?’ Until recently, Barcelona has always had only very brief moments of stability; the rest of its history is a succession of cycles: success, crisis,
success again. The fight has been to bring about a degree of stability. Pep was cast from the same mould. He wants to be, and demands of himself that he be, the same coach who made his debut in 2008, but instead of finding answers he finds more questions, a victim of his own dedication and perfectionism, and also of his own torments and the difficulty he has in allowing people to help him.

  Managing: one of the hardest and most solitary professions. Rich in victory; orphaned in defeat.

  Guardiola treated defeat and victory with equal respect, but always kept a healthy distance from both. But no matter how he wants the epitaph of his career at Barcelona to read, nobody is about to usurp him from the most prominent place in Barça’s roll of honour and that of world football.

  Ramón Besa uses some wonderful words to describe Pep’s legacy. ‘The football put in practice by Guardiola stemmed from childhood romanticism, from the shots in the main square of Santpedor, and is based on a cold and detailed analysis. It is consumed by the passion of returning to his childhood and it is carried out with the precision of a surgical knife.’ As his friend David Trueba wrote, ‘Guardiola is always looking for “the perfect match”, that certain “El Dorado”, that paradise that isn’t conceived without his impeccable conduct on and off the pitch.’

  It is simplistic to reduce Pep’s influence to mere numbers, but the stats are extraordinary: 177 victories, 46 draws, 20 defeats. He gave twenty-two kids from the lower ranks the chance to make their debut in the first team. He was the youngest coach to win two Champions League trophies; the sixth to win it as both player and coach.

  Without doubt, the best coach in the history of FC Barcelona.

  The style, criticised in the past for being too baroque, irregular, unbalanced and often ineffective, was still enjoyable and now also successful.

  And Pep’s decision-making affected the Spanish national side as well. National coach Luis Aragonés decided to give the team’s leadership to the midfielders and Vicente del Bosque introduced little change, paving the way for the Barcelona idea to be at the core of the national team. Eventually the side that became twice European Champions and World Cup-winners was based upon the principles introduced by the Barcelona players. It was a style Guardiola had shown could be effective, but also an astonishing cocktail which incorporated the strong characters of Real Madrid, represented by Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, the resilient emigrants (Alvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres, David Silva, Juan Mata) and the brushstrokes of the periphery (Jesús Navas, Fernando Llorente).