The Life Of Pep Guardiola

1846 Words8 Pages
Pep Guardiola Josep Guardiola i Sala was born in Santpedor, Catalonia to Dolors and Valenti. Guardiola had two older sisters, Francesca and Olga, and one younger brother Pere. Guardiola’s father, a bricklayer, sent Pep at the tender age of 14 to attend Barcelona’s club youth academy at Camp Nou in the Les Corts district of Barcelona or otherwise known as La Masia (the farmhouse.) Peps childhood was naturally filled with soccer, he was born into a Catalan culture that adored soccer. “’In his first week at the club, Cruyff the coach at that time for Barcelona’s first team, turned up unannounced at the ‘Mini’ stadium, a venue just down the road from Camp Nou used by the youth and B teams. Just before half-time he wandered into the dug-out and asked Charly Rexach, the youth team manager at the time, the name of the young skinny lad playing on the right side of midfield. ‘Guardiola – good lad’ came the reply. Cruyff ignored the comment and told Rexach to move him into the middle for the second half, to play as pivote, a difficult position to adapt to and one not used by many teams in Spain at the time. Pep Guardiola adjusted immediately, as Cruyff had suspected he would.’” Pep Guardiola was eventually moved up to play for the first team in 1990 where he enjoyed prolonged success. Pep Guardiola was not a first team regular until the 1991-92 season where he was only 20 years old. It was that year that Barcelona was able to win both La Liga and the European cup. Pep Guardiola was praised by a well-known Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo as being one of the finest soccer players in the world under the age of 21. Barcelona with Cruyff managing and Pep playing in the defensive midfield was able to go on to retain the La Liga title in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons. Barcelona was also able to reach the UEFA Champions League Final in the 1993-94 season but was

More about The Life Of Pep Guardiola

Open Document