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Football world celebrates ‘great achiever’ Guardiola as he clocks 51

By our reporter On Jan 18, 2022 0

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, arguably the greatest footballing coach in the modern era, celebrates his 51st birthday on Tuesday.

There is no doubt that the Spaniard has had an enormous impact across his 14-and-a-half-year managerial career, stamping his authority at his beloved Barcelona, before reaching new heights at both Bayern Munich and Man City.

His unique philosophy is one that is not just easy on the eye, but has proven to be successful in breaking countless records and crucially winning silverware.

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Such success at the highest level has unsurprisingly seen the Catalan-born boss mentioned in the debate for the greatest of all time, though he faces competition from other high-profile names to have graced the beautiful game.

Here, Sports Mole takes a look at the Spaniard’s illustrious managerial career, compared with two other coaching legends in the form of Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho when they were aged 51.

🙌 MANAGER OF THE MONTH 🙌@PepTeam has been named @premierleague Manager of the Month for the second successive month! 👏#ManCity pic.twitter.com/HgopRwcsfI

— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 14, 2022

After a successful playing career, which included winning 15 major honours with Barcelona, Guardiola returned to Catalonia in 2007 to take charge of the B team, who had just been relegated from the Segunda Division B. Under his guidance, they won their Tercera Division group to achieve promotion back to the Segunda Division B at the first time of asking.

Following an impressive first season as a head coach, the Spaniard was surprisingly given the first-team reins in 2008. In his first season, Guardiola made an immediate impact by winning the treble (La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League), which to this day is regarded as one of the club’s finest achievements. Two more league titles, another Champions League triumph and an additional eight pieces of silverware followed to take his tally to 14, before he decided that a change was needed.

After a year-long sabbatical, Bayern Munich would be the Spaniard’s next destination, where he spent three years between 2013 and 2016. This was a different challenge in a new environment, though he had no trouble in adapting and putting his stamp on German football. While a European triumph eluded him at the Allianz Arena, Guardiola’s time in Bavaria is still considered a success, as he won a total of seven trophies including three Bundesliga titles.

Then in the summer of 2016, Guardiola took on arguably his biggest challenge yet when he joined Manchester City, a club with the ambition, personnel, facilities and finances to reach the very top under his tutelage.

In the strongest league, with the toughest of competitors, Guardiola realised the enormity of the task at hand in his first year at the Etihad Stadium, as his first season in charge was also his first ever without winning a single trophy. However, the Spaniard has never looked back since and securing silverware is now considered a welcome habit for the Citizens.

Guardiola’s first success at City came in the 2018 EFL Cup final, and just three months later he guided the Sky Blues to a record-breaking Premier League title triumph, with his team becoming the first to record 100 points in a single English top-flight campaign.

Season after season, Guardiola’s well-oiled machine continues to break records, with one of his most notable coming in the 2018-19 campaign, when they became the first team in English football to win the domestic quadruple.

After five-and-a-half years in the job, claiming 10 domestic pieces of silverware in the process, Guardiola now hopes to end City’s painful wait for Champions League glory while continuing to dominate domestically.