Page 186 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

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