Guardiola Pep - Pep confidential: inside Pep Guardiolas first season at Bayern Munich

PEP

CONFIDENTIAL

INSIDE PEP GUARDIOLAS FIRST SEASON
AT BAYERN MUNICH

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
ARENA SPORT
An imprint of Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
10 Newington Road
Edinburgh
EH9 1QS

www.arenasportbooks.co.uk

Published in association with
BACKPAGE PRESS
www.backpagepress.co.uk

Copyright Mart Perarnau, 2014
Translation Louise Hunter, 2014

ISBN: 9781909715257
eBook ISBN: 9780857908179

First published in Spain in 2014 by Rocca Editorial as Herr Pep

The right of Mart Perarnau to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library.

Designed and typeset by Polaris Publishing, Edinburgh

Printed and bound by Clays St Ives

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks go to Lufthansa and the Munich U-Bahn (Metro) for getting me there on time.

And to the security guards at FC Bayern, led by Heinz Jnger, who sheltered me from the heat and the cold.

A huge thank you is also due to everyone at Munichs Hotel Wetterstein, where I spent much of last year and felt very much at home.

Thanks also to Markus Hrwick, FC Bayerns very able director of communications, and to his team Nina Aigner, Cristina Neumann, Holger Quest and Petra Trott.

I am enormously grateful to all the FC Bayern players, and in particular to Thiago Alcntara, Jerme Boateng, Dante Bonfim, Pierre-Emile Hjbjerg, Philipp Lahm, Javi Martnez, Manuel Neuer, Rafinha, Franck Ribry, Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger, for their collaboration and the kindness they have shown me.

Thanks also to Paul Breitner, Roman Grill, Jupp Heynckes, Jrgen Klopp, Alexis Menuge, Christoph Metzelder, Stefen Niemeyer, Manuel Pellegrini, Daniel Rathjen, Ronald Reng, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Xavier Sala i Martn, Christian Streich, Julien Wolff and Mounir Zitouni, who have all made interesting contributions to this book.

To Matthias Sammer, for all his passion and his German language tutorials.

Thanks also to Isaac Lluch, a young, talented journalist whose vital support for me, in every sense of the word, knew no bounds.

Sincere thanks to Guardiolas technical team, Domnec Torrent, Lorenzo Buenaventura and Carles Planchart, without whose direction and advice it would have been impossible to understand the teams training regime and playing style.

And to Manel Estiarte, the key that opens every door. It is impossible to express the enormous debt I owe him for all his help and support.

And finally, to Pep Guardiola, the man who gave me this opportunity to understand in depth the workings of an elite football team, for all the generosity he showed me even through the blackest moments of the season.

PART ONE

TIME, PATIENCE, PASSION

We need patience.
KARL-HEINZ RUMMENIGGE

* * *

We need passion.
MATTHIAS SAMMER

* * *

We need time.
PEP GUARDIOLA

DINNER WITH KASPAROV

New York, October 2012

TAKING A LAST bite of salad, Garry Kasparov shook his head and muttered irritably: Impossible!

For the third time that night he tried to fend off Pep Guardiolas relentless questioning. The Catalan was determined to understand why Kasparov would not even consider the idea of competing against the young maestro, Magnus Carlsen, the worlds most promising chess player.

Until then, the atmosphere over dinner had been perfectly congenial. Indeed, since meeting Kasparov a few weeks before, Pep had made no attempt to conceal his fascination for the great champion.

Kasparov embodies the qualities Pep prizes above all others: resilience, intelligence, dedication, persistence, inner strength and a healthy streak of rebelliousness. It had therefore been an absolute delight to meet up over a meal or two. So far the conversation had covered a range of topics from economics and technology to, inevitably, sport and competition.

Guardiola was a few months into his sabbatical from the elite of world football. He had promised himself a year of tranquility in New York and was just starting to enjoy it.

He had spearheaded a triumphant era at FC Barcelona, the most successful period in the Catalan clubs history achievements which may never be matched. During his four years in charge he won a formidable total of 14 trophies out of the 19 available, including six titles in 2009 alone. Yet, despite all of the brilliance and passion, the experience had left him drained and exhausted. Increasingly dispirited, he had decided to leave Bara before the damage became irreparable.

New York represented a fresh start. He wanted the chance to switch off, forget the past and discover new ideas. This was an opportunity to recharge his batteries and top up the reserves of energy that had become so depleted. He was keen to spend time with his family, whom he had neglected under pressure of work.

There would also be time to touch base with old friends. One of those was Xavier Sala i Martn, professor of economics at Columbia University, who had been director of finance at Bara from 2009 to 2010, during Joan Laportas final term as president.

Sala i Martn, a renowned economist with an international reputation, is a good friend of the Guardiola family and has lived in New York for some time. His presence there was an important factor in overcoming the familys misgivings about moving to the city. The children had not yet mastered English and Cristina, Peps wife, would have to leave her own job in the family business in Catalonia.

Initially, none of them was particularly enthusiastic about Peps proposal, but Sala i Martn persuaded them to give New York a go and so far the whole experience had proved much better than expected.

Sala i Martn also counts Garry Kasparov as a close friend and one autumn night was forced to decline a dinner invitation to the Guardiolas New York home: Sorry Pep. I cant make it tonight. Im having dinner with the Kasparovs.

He then suggested that his Catalan friend accompany him to the meal, an idea which delighted not just Pep but Kasparov and his wife, Daria, too.

During what was a fascinating evening, the conversation flowed despite the fact that neither chess nor football was mentioned. They talked about inventions and technology, about the value of breaking pre-established paradigms and the virtue of remaining steadfast in the face of uncertainty. Most of all, they talked about passion.

Central to the discussion was Kasparovs rather bleak assertion that technological potential is being directed to the world of entertainment more than anything else. In his view, current technological advances lack the transcendence of their predecessors and this has helped contribute to worldwide economic stagnation.