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PEP GUARDIOLA is known throughout the world of football as one of the most successful managers of all time.
However, while his younger brother, Pere, does not make the same international headlines as the Manchester City boss, he is making his own waves in European football.
AFP
SEG Football
GettyAt the age of 48, Pere – pronounced Pera – Guardiola, five years his brothers junior, has helped transform the fortunes of Spanish club Girona.
The Catalan club earned a historic spot in the Champions League after finishing third in La Liga last season and will face six-time winners Liverpool in the competition tonight.
The minnows have the highly-coveted coach Míchel, and despite only returning to the top flight in 2022, Guardiola believes the club is an incredibly attractive prospect for players.
Speaking to Yahoo Sports, he said: “Girona is a very good place for football. The weather is great. The region is good.
“The club itself has a pressure because we live 24-hour football, but the environment and the history there is not that pressure like with big clubs.
“But we are starting to have history and we are starting to put pressure because we know the level we want to reach and if we are not doing that we need to question ourselves.
“That means this environment is very nice for the lovers of football and there is always a chance for anyone to one day come to Girona and play for Girona or coach Girona. Because the environment is calm.”
Guardiola has even joked to his brother that “the day you get bored, you can come and coach Girona,” although he acknowledges this is more of pipe dream than a realistic reality.
The two brothers grew up together in the small town of Santpedor, located between Girona and Barcelona, and have a shared philosophy and passion for the beautiful game.
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He credits much of this philosophy to the pioneering player and manager Johan Cruyff, explaining: “OK, in the end, this is a bit Barca philosophy, of Cruyff.
“Things don’t happen because they just happen. Things don’t just go the way you think because you have better skills.
“Things happen because there is a kind of pattern – knowing that if you have a player better than the opponent then you will have more chances. We should never forget it is about the players.
“I grew up eating this every day. The coach and sporting director and structure of the club is very important but we need good players.
“That doesn’t mean expensive players, but players who can fit in. And we help them to be better.
“Because if we don’t play good football it is like throwing a coin in the air. One day you can win; one day you can lose but most of the time you are going to struggle.
“Trying to play good football, to control all the departments on the pitch, is going to bring you closer to the win.”
However, while Pep was able to make his name as a player at Barcelona, Pere was an attacking midfielder in the lower leagues but soon made a name for himself in football agency by signing up some of Spain most prodigious talents.
Guardiola explained: “I was good at getting people together, making things happen, getting them to agree.
“I realised when I was growing up that I could do this. I was good at getting the right side to agree with the left side and I enjoyed it and did OK.
“I was with Nike for 10, 12 years and started by getting young players to wear Nike boots. I signed Andres Iniesta when he was 14, I signed Fernando Torres when he was 14.
“I grew up with them and ended up managing Ronaldo Nazário’s and Ronaldinho’s careers. One was in Madrid and the other was in Barcelona.
“Every week, it was Monday, Tuesday in Madrid, Wednesday, Thursday in Barcelona, because I was managing both of them. All of this experience helped me. Then I started my own company as an agent.
“When I got to Girona I had scope that definitely helped me to know what’s going on, what agents are thinking, what players are thinking. Now this is one of the things I have done that I like the most.”
Guardiola’s involvement with Girona started in 2015 when the club was in danger of going out of business. And he admits he was not looking at the club for investment until then sports director Quique Carcel suggested the idea.
But during his time working with the club as an agent, he “started falling in love” before he thought “why not” and purchased the club to save them from insolvency.
City Football Group then invested in the club in 2017 with a 47 per cent stake, though with Girona now competing in the same competition as the star team of the franchise, that relationship now has to change.
Guardiola said: “City were investing in clubs and we spoke with them and said they could have part of the club in a place where they know.
“In the beginning, we could help form the players and then one day they could play for Man City or be sold, like Pedro Porro who went to Sporting. It was to have a stepping-stone club…
“Now we are completely separate, but we were always quite independent.
“We need to generate a very good squad. We need to see the money and how it is invested – part of it is in the squad, in the new stadium, in the training ground, in the academy.
“In the end, we need to forget what people say outside of this. We need to do our plan and we need to keep going.”
He added that the long-term goal was to be in La Liga for the next 15 years, with Champions League participation despite their struggles this season being a huge bonus.
Despite backing from City Football Group, Girona have been frugal and invested their money wisely, with two of the teams current stars being former Manchester United stars Daley Blind and Donny van de Beek.
On the duo Guardiola said: “We have a coach and we play in a way that not everyone fits but some people can fit.
“That means that Daley Blind, for example, is a perfect player for us and we are a perfect platform for him.
“Van de Beek is a bit like this. He went to United and was unlucky, losing momentum with different coaches and different players and got injured.
“He was in teams that were struggling to play attacking football and he needs that type of football.
“Now we are in a position that our football fits him very well, the Spanish league fits him very well, knowing that he needed time.
“He had two, three years without really playing and every day now you can see he is improving.”
While working as an agent for Nike he signed Spanish legend Fernando Torres and Andres IniestaGetty - Contributor
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