Page 94 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

but he knew exactly what was going on: Messi was sulking because he wanted to go to the Olympic
Games in Beijing with Argentina – but Barcelona were against releasing him as the dates coincided
with the first round of the Champions League qualifiers against Wisła Kraków. The matter had gone
before a sporting tribunal, where it was established that the club was within its rights not to grant him

permission to go, despite FIFA’s demands to the contrary.
However, while the club and Argentinian Federation locked horns, the player felt like a pawn in a
dispute in which he had little interest. All he knew was that he wanted to play football for his country
in the Olympic Games – and Barcelona were denying him that opportunity.
It provided Pep with the chance he had been looking for.
The coach sat down with president Laporta, Beguiristain and Estiarte in the suite of the hotel in
which the team were staying in the United States for a pre-season tour. He explained that if the club

could ignore the ruling and let Messi go to the Olympics, the long-term gain outweighed the short-
term loss: it would allow him to get the best out of Messi. Nobody dared tell Pep that he was a
novice, that this was a decision that should be made by the club. Champions League football was at
stake, after all. Pep asked them to trust him.
A little while later he had a chat with Messi. ‘Leo,’ he told him, ‘I’m going to let you go because I

have been an Olympic champion and I want you to be one too. But you owe me one.’
It proved to be the first building block in the construction of a relationship that grew stronger and
stronger during the four years the pair were united at FC Barcelona. Pep’s gesture brought them
together at a time when they could have been driven apart before things even got going. Pep had
decided again that, if mistakes were going to be made, they would be a consequence of his own
decision-making and not those of others.
Later, Pep would make Messi a promise: ‘Listen to me, Leo, stick close to me. With me you will
score three or four goals every game.’

Before he made his debut in an official game with Guardiola, Messi travelled to the 2008 Olympic
Games in Beijing. He returned to Barcelona an Olympic gold medallist – and he understood that it
would not have been possible without the intervention of his new boss.
‘If Leo smiles, everything is easier,’ Pep repeated often.

It was time for the showdown against the old enemy, in a match that could effectively seize the La
Liga trophy from Real Madrid and hand the title to FC Barcelona in Pep Guardiola’s debut season as
a first-team coach. A win for the visitors to the Bernabéu would virtually guarantee them the

championship, giving them a seven-point lead with four games remaining; defeat would leave them
just a point above their hosts. It was a genuine ‘six-pointer’.
Pep and his boys were facing the biggest challenge and the most high-pressure game of their time
together so far, at the end of what had become an exemplary season.
Standing between them and glory were Real Madrid: not only their eternal rivals, but an outfit in
extraordinary form, even if their football was a little dull. Juande Ramos’ team had enjoyed a
phenomenal second half of the season, collecting fifty-two out of a possible fifty-four points, drawing

just one game, against Atlético de Madrid, after having lost at the Camp Nou (leaving them, at that
stage, twelve points behind Barcelona). ‘We haven’t been playing to our highest level in every game
so that we can give our all when the time comes to have our shot at taking the lead,’ said the Madrid
coach.
The Catalan press was encouraging supporters to settle for a draw, trying to manage expectations