One of the songs that played from the portable speakers and baffles in the Manchester City dressing room was Everywhere, an 80s hit by the English band Fleetwood Mac, which citizen fans cover in their songs. Wherever he is, Pep Guardiola’s victories are celebrated hundreds of kilometers away, in Barcelona, ​​his home, where he grew up, where he made history as a player and coach. At the same time, the Santpedor coach, in his great successes, usually always remembers FC Barcelona, ​​where his stage always had a misleading unfinished flavor. He carries the club in his heart, culé from birth, where he keeps good friends, starting with the box with President Laporta and continuing on the bench with Xavi. Barça also has a weight in its coaching staff and in the sports leadership of City, where the Catalan colony rules.
The last four Champions League finals have ended the same, 1-0. But for Guardiola the result and the game on Saturday reminded him of another 1-0, with which Barça lifted their first European Cup. The rival, like Inter, was also Italian. “Winning this competition is always difficult. I remember when Barça won it for the first time: we challenged Sampdoria and it was a game very similar to this one against Inter. We suffer. There was an incredible player like Ronald Koeman who decided that game. It is not easy to win â€, he analyzed, reminiscent of the Blaugrana.
The parallelism in Istanbul was served and sung because the Champions League had resisted him since he left the Camp Nou, as if it were an errant curse from Béla Guttman. It had been 12 years since he was crowned at Wembley in 2011 with an exhibition of football in the final against United. So he had just turned 40 and seemed to have all the answers. He is now over 50 and his success lies in metabolizing other types of football and expanding his record. And they asked him to compare his feelings. “It’s been so long since I won the other Champions that I no longer remember what I felt. Barça was always special to me. Winning there has another flavor â€, he confessed his unconditional love for the Blaugrana institution. “And here they have treated me like a son,” he discovered.
In that almost paternal-child protective relationship that he has lived in the Etihad Stadium, his comfort and longevity in a project that is a priori alien to him is also explained, but in practice it has pampered him so that he could only focus on his work. Without greater wear than thinking about the next rival. “They support me unconditionally in the defeats of this tournament. In many clubs, if that happens, they fire you, â€he pointed out on Saturday about the trust he has received, without forgetting the investment of almost 1,000 million euros.
Guardiola has two more years on his contract, until 2025. No one doubts that he will fulfill them fully and that will mean completing nine seasons at the club, nothing to do with the extra pressure he experienced at Can Barça between 2008 and 2012. “There are four years and time wears everything out. I have emptied myself and I need to fill myself up â€, he announced on April 28, 2012 to explain that he would no longer renew for Sandro Rosell’s Barcelona. Fourteen titles (out of a possible 19) he won in his four courses as coach of the Barça first team. And the Champions League in Istanbul was also the fourteenth trophy (out of 32 he has opted for) that Manchester City has won under his mandate. Everything seems to indicate that there will be one more after becoming the first coach with two triplets.
“14 years ago we won the treble with Barça and 14 was Johan Cruyff’s number. Many beautiful things were going to happen â€, was another wink from Pep, this time with his teacher.
It does not seem that it will be the last success of the Santpedor coach. Surely someone on your staff is already thinking about the European Super Cup against Sevilla in August, in Athens, or that in mid-December, knowing that the Premier does not stop for Christmas, they will have to travel to Saudi Arabia to play the World Cup in clubs. Or even a little further.
“My president has told me: ‘Next season the final is in London, at Wembley,'” revealed a conversation with Khaldoon al-Mubarak. “I will not tell you my answer. I’m not talking about that. I need a break first.” But Wembley and Guardiola always mix well.
