Pep Guardiola

Who is Pep Guardiola?

Josep "Pep" Guardiola i Sala is a Spanish football manager and manager of German Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. Guardiola had played as a defensive midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career with FC Barcelona. He was part of Johan Cruyff's "dream team" that won Barcelona's first European Cup. He also played for Brescia and Roma in Italy; Al-Ahli in Qatar; and for Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico while attending managing school. While playing in Italy, he served a four-month ban for a positive drug test, although he was cleared of wrongdoing twice on appeal in 2009 before the Courts of Justice of the Italian Football Federation and the Federal Anti-Doping Courts of the Italian Olympic Committee. As an international, he played for Spain, and in friendly matches for Catalonia.

After retiring as a player, Guardiola became coach of FC Barcelona B, and mid-2008 he succeeded Frank Rijkaard as the first team manager. In his first season as manager, Barça won the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. In doing so, Guardiola became the youngest UEFA Champions League-winning manager ever. The following season, Guardiola and Barcelona won the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup, bringing the manager's tally to the maximum of six trophies in six competitions in one year, thus completing six trophies sextuple in two seasons.