Pep Guardiola Biography, Age, Family, Wife and Football

Pep Guardiola Biography | Pep Guardiola Autobiography

Josep “Pep” Guardiola Sala is a Spanish professional football coach and former player born on 18th January 1971. He is now the manager of Premier League club Manchester City. At the age of 13, Pep Guardiola started his course as a footballer in Barcelona youth academy.

He was observed by the head coach of the team Johan Cruyff and was incorporated into the senior team at the age of 20. He played as a defender.  He spent majority of his career with Barcelona. He formed a a part of Johan Cruff’s Dream Team that won the club’s first European up in 1992 and four successive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994. Pep later captained the team from 1997 to 2001. After retiring as a player, Guardiola started coaching Barcelona B, with whom he won a Tercera Division title and assumed control of the first-team in 2008.

He became the youngest manager to win the aforementioned European competition after guiding Barcelona to a treble of La Liga,Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League in his first season as the first team manager. In 2011, Pep was awarded the Catalan Parliament’s Gold Medal after leading the club to another La Liga and champions League double. He was also named the FIFA World Coach of the Year the same year. He departed Barcelona in 2012 winning 4 trophies in his final season and 14 major honours in his four years in Barcelona.

Pep Guardiola Age

Pep Guardiola Date Of Birth: 18th January 1971, he is 47 years old as of 2018.

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Pep Guardiola Family

Pep was born to Dolors, a housewife and Valenti, a bricklayer in Santpedor, Spain. He had two older sisters and a younger brother.

Pep Gourdiola Image

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Pep Guardiola Wife

Pep married Cristina Serra, a fashion designer in 2014. The couple met at a popular clothes store in Spain owned by Cristina’s family. At that time, an 18 year old Pep was modelling for Spanish designer Antonio Miro. They have 3 children; Marius, Maria and Valentina.

Pep Guardiola Nationality

Pep is of Spanish decent.

Pep Guardiola Children

Pep has 3 children;  Marius, Maria and Valentina.

Pep Guardiola Brother

Pere Guardiola Pep’s brother, is a football agent. He’s the current agent to Luis Suárez, Andrés Iniesta and many other well known Spanish players including two at Man City. He’s a registered intermediary with the English and Spanish FA.

Pep Guardiola Salary

In his initial contract in 2016 Pep is said to have been paid over £15m a year. After the extension of his contract with Man City, it is speculated he will be taking home £20m a year.

Pep Guardiola Player

Guardiola started playig for Barcelona in 1988 and exited in 2001. He played a total of 479 games in 12 seasons, winning 16 trophies. After leaving Barcelona, he joined Serie A side Brescia. He later left Brescia for Roma in 2002. While Italy, Pep suffered a four month ban after testing positive for nandrolone. He was however, cleared on 29th september 2009. He played a number of Coppa Italia games and Champions League games, finishing with 71 games in Italy.

Pep Guardiola Man City

2016-2017 season

Manchester City signed Pep on 1st February 2016 to a three-year contract for the start of the 2016-17 season. Man City lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in Guardiola’s first pre-season match. Man City won his first premier League season match 2-1 against Sunderland on 13th August 2016. Pep won his first Manchester derby as a manager on 11 September 2016, in a 2-1 victory which was his 6th win against his rival manager Jose Mourinho.

By the end of September 2016, Guardiola had won all of his first 10 matches as the manager of Man City and were top of the Premier League table four points ahead of second place Tottenham Hotspur. He lost his first match 2-0 as City manager to Tottenham. After the international break, Pep put a record of going 5 games without a win and City’s poor run continued into EFL Cup where they lost 1-0 to Manchester United.

Later,  City lost 4-0 to Everton. After a 6-6 aggregate draw, City were eliminated in the last 16 of the Champions League by Monaco on away goals. The second leg of the tie was his 100th game as a manager in European competition and he arrived at that mark with the best record of any manager, 61 wins and 23 draws. This was one draw better than the previous record holder ,Louis van Gaal, his former manager at Barcelona.

2017-18 season

In the 2017-18 season, Guardiola identified the goalkeeper and full back position areas and agreed they required improvement. During the summer transfer window he made three acquisitions in goalkeeper Ederson moraes and wing-backs Benjamin mendy and Kyle Walker. He also signed Bernado Silva from Monaco and Danilo from Real Madrid. On 25th February, City won the Carabao cup after a 0-3 win against Arsenal. This was Guardiola’s first trophy with City. On 15th April, Manchester City were confirmed as Premier League cchampions finishing the season with a record breaking 100 points.

2018-19 season

City began the season with a 0-2 win against Chelsea on 5th August and they won the 2018 F.A Community Shield. During this season with Pep still as the manager, City signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for a fee of £60 million, a club record.

Pep Guardiola Books

A Part from being a coach and a so decorated player, the Man City coach is also a writer. He has written books like, The Evolution , Pep Confidential:Inside Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich and  Barca: The Making of the Greatest team in the World.

Pep Guardiola Barcelona

Guardiola was first appointed coach of Barcelona B on 21 June 2007 with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. Under Guardiola’s guidance, Barcelona B subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. The President of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta announced in May 2008 that Guardiola would be appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad. He would replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–08 season.

2008–09 season in the first team

Upon being appointed, Guardiola revealed that Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto’o and others were not part of his plans for the coming season. By the time of the announcement, Guardiola had already gotten rid off full back Gianluca Zambrotta to Milan, attacking midfielder Giovani dos Santos to Tottenham Hotspur and midfielder Edmílson to Villarreal.

Guardiola finished the season by leading Barça to the Champion’s League final where they beat Manchester United 2–0. After that victory, they became the first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, the league, and the European club titles (the treble) in the same season. The treble-winning season is regarded as one of the club’s finest in its history. Guardiola became the youngest man to coach a Champions League winning team.

2009–10 season

In exchange for Zlatan Ibrahimović of Internazionale, Guardiola swapped Samuel Eto’o and €46 million during his second season as manager. Many players left the club in the same transfer window – Eiður Guðjohnsen was sold to Monaco; Sylvinho and Albert Jorquera’s contracts ended; and other players were loaned out, including Alexander Hleb to VfB Stuttgart, Martín Cáceres to Juventus, Alberto Botía to Sporting de Gijón, and Víctor Sánchez to Xerez.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on 8 June 2010, fined Guardiola €15,000 following a formal inquiry opened by the Competition Committee regarding his actions and comments during and after a match on 6 March 2010,against Almería. Guardiola approached the fourth official with malicious intent, berating the official and speaking into his microphone with phrases such as, “You are calling everything wrong,” according to the official report. Following the match, Guardiola accused his assistant José Luis Galdino Gallego and Carlos Clos Gómez of “lying” in their match report. Barcelona were given ten days to appeal the sanction. TV replays supported Guardiola’s assertions. The game ended 2–2.

2010-11 season

Guardiola’s third season as the manager, saw the departure of Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Zlatan Ibrahimović two of whom had arrived last season. Dmytro Chygrynskiy returned to Shakhtar Donetsk and Zlatan Ibrahimović joined Milan on loan. Rafael Márquez and Thierry Henry were released from their contracts and they both moved to New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer (MLS); Yaya Touré also left the team and moved to Manchester City. The club signed Adriano from Sevilla, David Villa from Valencia and Javier Mascherano from Liverpool. Guardiola signed a new contract On 14 July 2010, to stay with Barcelona until June 2011.

On 11 May 2011, Barcelona won the La Liga title after a 1–1 draw with Levante.This and the club’s third in a row. On 28 May, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3–1 to win the Champions League at Wembley Stadium.

2011–12 season Guardiola’s fourth season started with the departure of three long-serving Barça players: Gabriel Milito who moved back to old Argentine club Independiente, Bojan who was sold to Roma and Jeffrén was sold to Sporting CP. Two high-profile signings were made: Alexis Sánchez came from Udinese for €26 million plus bonuses, and Cesc Fàbregas, a former La Masia graduate, returned from Arsenal for €29 million plus bonuses. To complete the squad, Thiago and Andreu from the youth system were promoted. The season started with a 5–4 aggregate win over Real Madrid for the Supercopa de España.

Guardiola continued to lead Barcelona to wins in the remaining La Liga games of the season, followed by a Copa del Rey final win of 3-0. His record of 14 trophies in four seasons has made him the most successful coach in Barcelona’s history. Barcelona announced that he would be succeeded by Tito Vilanova, who would begin leading the first team at the start of the 2012–13 season.

Pep Guardiola Bayern Munich

2013-2014 season

On 16 January 2013, it was announced that Guardiola would be replacing Jupp Heynckes as manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich after the 2012–13 season.On 24 June 2013, he addressed his first press conference as Bayern manager, in “impressive German” and had his first training session two days later. His first official match was the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, with Bayern losing 4–2. His first trophy with Bayern was the 2013 UEFA Super Cup, defeating longtime adversary José Mourinho, who had just returned to coach at Chelsea. Bayern beat ten-man Chelsea in a shoot-out after Manuel Neuer saved Romelu Lukaku’s kick.

Bayern drew against Real Madrid in the semi–finals of Champions League. Bayern lost the first leg 1–0 and the second leg 4–0. After the first leg, Guardiola was criticized for his tactics. However, he defended his tactics. Also in the first leg, Guardiola lost his first match at the Santiago Bernabéu. He was undefeated in his first seven matches in the stadium. Guardiola took the blame for the loss. Philipp Lahm, however, insisted “it was a collective failure and not the fault of coach Guardiola.” He finished the 2013–14 season by winning the DFB-Pokal 2–0 in extra–time.

2014-2015 season

on 9 July 2014, pre–season started with the first friendly match on 18 July 2014. Mario Mandžukić was sold to Atlético Madrid because he believed that the “playing style of coach Pep Guardiola simply does not fit him.” Bayern played in the 2014 MLS All-Star Game in Portland, Oregon on 6 August 2014. The all-star team was led by Timbers Coach Caleb Porter.The match ended with Bayern losing 2–1 to the All-Star squad. Separate incidents involving “harsh challenges” by Osvaldo Alonso and Will Johnson visibly enraged Guardiola and after the match he refused to shake Porter’s hand. One of the tackles injured Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Bayern ended an 11-match undefeated streak on 15 April 2015, after losing 3–1 to Porto in Portugal. In Guardiola’s 100th match as head coach, Bayern defeated Porto 6–1. With the win, Bayern reached their fourth-straight Champions League semifinal. Bayern were knocked out of the German Cup in a shoot-out on 28 April 2015. Bayern had missed all four of their shots. In his first competitive match against Barcelona, Bayern lost 3–0. Bayern failed to get a shot on target in the match.For the first time in his career, he lost four in a row.

2015-2016 season

Pre-season began on 1 July 2015. In the Telekom Cup, after losing to Augsburg in the semi-final and losing to Borussia Mönchengladbach in a shootout Bayern finished fourth. on 1 August 2015, Bayern lost the German Super Cup to VfL Wolfsburgthen, then beat Real Madrid in the Audi Cup final four days later. The competitive season started on 1 August 2015 when Bayern lost in a shoot-out to Wolfsburg in the German Super Cup. Then, Bayern won in the first round of the German Cup on 9 August 2015.In the league, Bayern won their first ten matches.

The first time they dropped points in the league was on 30 October 2015 in a 0–0 scoreline against Eintracht Frankfurt and their first loss in the league was on 5 December 2015 in a 3–1 scoreline to Borussia Mönchengladbach.In the Champions League group stage, Bayern won Group F, winning five out of the six matches. Bayern’s only loss in the Champions League group stage was on 20 October against Arsenal.This was Bayern’s first loss in all competitions during the 2015–16 season.

On 3 May 2016, in the champions league semifinals stage, Guardiola’s Bayern Munich lost to Atlético Madrid thereby ending his final chance of winning a Champions League title with the Bavarian club. Guardiola’s final match was on 21 May 2016 which Bayern defeated Borussia Dortmund in a shootout.He finished with a record of 82 wins, 11 draws, and nine losses in the Bundesliga; a record of 14 wins, three draws, and no losses in the DFB-Pokal; a record of 23 wins, five draws, and eight losses in the UEFA Champions League.He also went a combined two wins, two draws, and two losses in the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and the German Super Cup.In non–official competitions, he went a combined six wins, one draw, and one loss.

Pep Guardiola Contract

After winning the 2017-2018 Premier League championship, Guardiola signed a new contract with Manchester City until 2021.

Pep Guardiola Trophies

How many trophies has Pep Guardiola won when he was a player?

Barcelona B

• Segunda División B: 1990–91

Barcelona

• La Liga: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99
• Copa del Rey: 1996–97
• Supercopa de España: 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996
• European Cup: 1991–92
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: 1996–97
• European Super Cup: 1992

Spain U23

• Olympic Gold Medal: 1992

Individual Trophies

• Bravo Award: 1992
• Olympics – Spain Best Player: 1992
• UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2000

When he was a Manager

Barcelona B

• Tercera División: 2007–08

Pep Guardiola Fc BarcelonaBarcelona

• La Liga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11
• Copa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12
• Supercopa de España: 2009, 2010, 2011
• UEFA Champions League: 2008–09, 2010–11
• UEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011
• FIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011

Guardiola Bayern Munich

• Bundesliga: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16
• DFB-Pokal: 2013–14, 2015–16
• UEFA Super Cup: 2013
• FIFA Club World Cup: 2013

Guardiola Manchester City

• Premier League: 2017–18
• EFL Cup: 2017–18
• FA Community Shield: 2018

Individual Trophies

• Don Balón Award: 2009, 2010
• Miguel Muñoz Trophy: 2008–09, 2009–10
• Onze d’Or Coach of the Year: 2009, 2011, 2012
• World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2009, 2011
• World Soccer Magazine 5th Greatest Manager of All Time: 2013
• IFFHS World’s Best Club Coach: 2009, 2011
• European Coach of the Year—Alf Ramsey Award: 2011
• European Coach of the Season: 2008–09
• UEFA Team of the Year Best Coach: 2008–09, 2010–11
• La Liga Coach of the Year: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
• FIFA World Coach of the Year: 2011
• Globe Soccer Awards Coach Career Award: 2013
• Premier League Manager of the Month: February 2017, September 2017, October 2017, November 2017, December 2017

• Premier League Manager of the Season: 2017–18
• LMA Manager of the Year: 2017–18

Guardiola Decorations

• Gold Medal Royal Order of Sports Merit: 2010
• Catalan of the Year Award: 2009

Pep Guardiola Record

Pep has an amazing record of management.

Barcelona B He took over a demoralised team that had relegated to its lowest tier in over 30 years. But he successfully took a squad of players who had been underperforming and returned them to their proper level, winning the league; Tercera Division Champions in 2007-2008 season.

Barcelona

Under his management Barcelona won the league by nine points, claimed the Copa del Rey and also won the Champions League final securing the first ever treble in Barcelona’s history. By the time he left Barcelona, they had won;

• 3 La Liga champions
• 2 Champions League winners
• 2 Copa del Rey winners
• 2 FIFA Club World Cup winners
• 2 European Super Cup winners
• 3 Spanish Supercopa winners

Bayern Munich

While in Bayern Munich, Guardiola already had 5 trophies to his name in 2 seasons.In 3 seasons, it was a total of 8 trophies.

• 2 Bundesliga champions
• 1 DFB-Pokal winners
• 1 UEFA Super Cup winners
• 1 FIFA Club World Cup winners

At Man City Pep won:

• Premier League
• EFL Cup
• FA Community Shield

Total trophy record

• 6 League victories
• 2 Champions League victories
• 3 Domestic cup victories
• 9 Supercup/Club World Cup victories

Pep Guardiola Twitter

Tweets by GuardiolaTweets

Pep Guardiola Instagram

Pep Guardiola Watch

Pep is Frequently seen in his Rolex Deep Sea Dweller valued at around £9000. His other favourite is IWC Big Pilot which retails around the same price. He has also been seen wearing Chopard Mille Miglia GT XL chrono speed black which only a limited run of 1000 were made. During his days in Barca he was spotted with the Cartier Santos 100 in rose gold. He was also spotted wearing his limited edition Cimier QNET City Automatic.

Pep Guardiola House

Guardiola’s House

Pep Guardiola Hair

Pep explained why he decided to accept his hair loss and shave his head. According to Goal.com the German team’s manager said his baldness was a way to avoid a temptation of having a haircut like mohawk-sporting defender Jerome Boateng; he had said that jokingly.

Pep Guardiola Quotes

Here are some of Pep’s quotes.

1. In football, the worst things are excuses. Excuses mean you cannot grow or move forward.
2. People always think the coach is the strongest person at a club, the boss, but in truth, he’s the weakest link. We’re there, vulnerable, undermined by those who don’t play, by the media, by the fans. They all have the same objective: to undermine the manager.
3. Tactics are so important because everybody has to know what they have to do on the pitch. The relationships and behaviours off the pitch between team-mates have to be as good as possible.
4. I am not dealing with footballers, I am dealing with people. They have fears and worry about failing and making fools of themselves in front of 80,000 people. I have to make them see that without each other they are nothing.
5. My advice for Sebastian Kehl is: if you have a 35-point deficit in the league, it is better to shut up.
6. I don’t like it when a player says, ‘I like freedom; I want to play for myself.’ Because the player has to understand he is part of a team with 10 other players. If everyone wants to be a jazz musician, it will be chaos. They will not be a team, and nothing will be possible.
7. I need time, but as soon as possible, we are going to try to create team spirit. That is the most important thing. After that, you can create tactics, but we have to create something special with ourselves.
8. I won 21 titles in seven years: three titles per year playing in this way. I’m sorry, guys. I’m not going to change
9. If there isn’t a sequence of 15 previous passes, a good transition between attack and defence is impossible. Impossible.

Pep Guardiola Interview

Pep Guardiola Young

Young Guardiola

Pep Guardiola Vs Mourinho Trophies

Between Jose and Pep, it appears Jose has the most trophies. Jose Mourinho has a total of 17 trophies while Pep has a total of 14 trophies.

Pep Guardiola News

The Man City coach,  Pep,  revealed that he will end his coaching career in Barcelona.