Page 181 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

well-crafted words to describe his influence. ‘He believes in football as a territory where greatness
is possible, because he never cheats, he is always brave, he takes away all the miseries of the game.
He is an authentic example of leadership not only applicable in the world of football. Definitively a
leader.’

Football, sport, is all that matters in Spain for the masses. The media ignore other walks of life
(culture, formation, critical thinking) and people cling on to sports symbols as their only valid point
of reference. It places a huge responsibility on those individuals and is a sign of foolishness in our
culture. Pep has always been acutely aware of the transcendence of his behaviour and the importance
of the institution he represents, so he has moderated and modulated his conduct accordingly. Society
in general has been grateful to him.
That Gold Medal offered by the Catalan Parliament was given to him ‘because of his track record

as an elite sportsman, for his success in his time as a manager, for his projection of a cultured
Catalunya, civil and open, that has succeeded in a very notable way, and for his values that he has
transmitted in an exemplary way, such as sportsmanship, teamwork, effort and personal growth, very
positive values not just from an individual point of view but also for personal progress’.
Excessive? Some would argue that on another day perhaps, but that at this moment in history, when
Catalonia needs so many leading examples after falling time and time again into despair, attacked on

a daily basis from so many political flanks, it was just what the doctor ordered.
But he often insisted, as he did in his own speech in response to the parliamentary homage (in front
of so many members of the political and social elite, the military, finance) that he ‘didn’t want to be
an example of anything’. Was anybody listening?
The idolising of Guardiola, some of it forced upon society by a faithful media and some genuinely
spontaneous, was born of an objective reality but, little by little, it was transformed into a mass
delirium that retained hardly any of the original feeling.

Success had created an image of Pep, a popular perception based perhaps upon some primary
religious and churlish mechanisms, that did not belong to himself – he was not the owner of that
duplicate. Adulation had created an unnecessary pedestal that Pep himself rejected.
How do you go from the humility of that Barcelona team, their constant prioritising of the
principles they based everything on (work ethic, respect, collective effort) to the fanaticism of some
of their followers, and even the cottage industry created around the figure of Guardiola? It is a fashion

that seems to have transcended Catalonia: AS newspaper carried a study in 2012 that showed there
were more Barcelona than Madrid fans in Spain – a first.
Sometimes, Catalan society, generally shy and allergic to role models, saw Guardiola as a
throwaway Dalai Lama, a guru for the Catalan masses. Pep often joked about the articles that praised
him, as if they were part of a competition to see who could be more sycophantic. And he always
wondered if virtues become defects in defeat, if the praise wasn’t a tool to sharpen the blades for
when it was time for the slaughter.

In the VIP area at the Camp Nou after the Barcelona derby, Zubizarreta was on his feet, red-eyed and
clearly emotional, but deep down scared. The leader was leaving his job so that the club could

continue shaping it and Tito would follow in his footsteps. Massive, daunting footsteps.
Still on the pitch, away from his players who had gathered a few steps from him to listen to his
words, Pep was checking his microphone. It wasn’t working and he was nervous, wanting the moment
to finish, that funeral for his public persona. Out of the ashes was going to appear the other Pep, the