Page 187 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

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. According 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