Pep Guardiola

Born in Santpedor, Barcelona, Catalonia, Guardiola joined La Masia at age 13 from Gimnàstic Manresa and rose through the ranks of Barcelona's youth academy for six years, making his debut in 1990 against Cádiz. As Phil Ball writes in Morbo,

In his first week at the club, Johan Cruyff turned up unannounced at the Mini Estadi, a venue just down the road from Camp Nou used by Barcelona B. Just before half-time he wandered into the dug-out and asked Charly Rexach, the youth team manager at the time, the name of the young lad playing on the right side of midfield. "Guardiola – good lad," came the reply. Cruyff ignored the comment and told Rexach to move him into the middle for the second half, to play as pivot. It was a difficult position to adapt to and one not used by many teams in Spain at the time. Guardiola adjusted immediately, as Cruyff had suspected he would, and when he moved to the first-team in 1990, he became the pivot of the Dream Team.

Guardiola became a first-team regular in the 1991–92 season, and at only 20 years old was a key component of a side that won La Liga and the European Cup. The Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21. Cruyff's "Dream Team" went on to retain La Liga title in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. The side again reached the 1994 UEFA Champions League final, but were beaten 4–0 by Fabio Capello's AC Milan side in Athens. Cruyff left in 1996, with Barcelona finishing fourth in the 1994–95 season and third in the 1995–96 season, but Guardiola retained his position at the centre of Barcelona's midfield.

In the 1996–97 season, Barcelona, this time led by Bobby Robson, won three cups: the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1997, Guardiola was named as Barcelona captain under new manager Louis van Gaal, but a calf muscle injury ruled Guardiola out of most of the 1997–98 season, in which Barcelona won a league and cup double. At the end of the season, Barcelona rejected offers from Roma and Parma (of around 300 million pesetas) for Guardiola. After prolonged and complicated contract talks, he signed a new contract with Barcelona that extended his stay until 2001.

Guardiola returned to action the following season and Barcelona once again won La Liga. …

On 14 October 1992, Guardiola debuted for the Spain national football team in a friendly match against Northern Ireland. The same year, he served as Spain when they won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. That same year he won the Bravo Award, which recognises the world's best player under the age of 21.

Guardiola was a member of the Spanish team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing 2–1 to Italy. Due to disagreements, he fell out of favour with Spain coach Javier Clemente and missed out on UEFA Euro 1996. Guardiola suffered a career-threatening injury in 1998 which kept him out of the year's World Cup, but later played at Euro 2000, where Spain reached another quarter-final, this time losing to France, 2–1. He continued to play in the Spanish midfield until his final appearance on 14 November 2001, in a 1–0 victory in a friendly match against Mexico. Guardiola scored his last international goal against Sweden in a 1–1 friendly draw during his 45th appearance.

Guardiola has played for and advocated on behalf of the Catalonia football team. Between 1995 and 2005, he played seven friendly matches for Catalonia.

Guardiola was a highly creative, hard-working, nimble, and elegant player with good anticipation, tactical awareness, and an ability to read the game. Throughout his career, he was usually deployed as either a central or defensive midfielder in front of his team's back-line, although he was also capable of playing in more attacking midfield roles. Although he was competent defensively and able to press opponents to break up play and win the ball effectively through his team-work and defensive positioning, he also had a tendency to give away many fouls; as such, and also in part due to his slender physical build, he usually functioned as a deep-lying playmaker in front of the defence, where he excelled courtesy of his technical ability and intelligent, efficient, precise passing game. He would also occasionally drop deeper to act as an additional centre-back in Cruyff's fluid 3–4–3 formation at Barcelona. Despite his lack of notable pace, dribbling ability, aerial prowess, or strong physical or athletic attributes, Guardiola was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision, close control, passing range, positional sense, and calm composure on the ball, as well as his speed of thought, which enabled him to retain possession under pressure and either set the tempo of his team's play in midfield with quick and intricate short first-time exchanges, or switch the play or create chances with longer passes. His role has also been likened to that of a metodista ("centre-half", in Italian football jargon), due to his ability to dictate play in midfield as well as assist his team defensively.

Guardiola was capable of being an offensive threat, due to his ability to make attacking runs or strike accurately from distance; he was also effective at creating chances or shooting on goal from set-pieces. Having served as captain of both Barcelona and the Spanish national side, he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. He was also known to be injury prone throughout his career.

Guardiola's playing style, which relied on creativity, technique and ball movement, rather than physicality and pace, inspired several future diminutive Spanish playmaking midfielders, such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas, with the latter describing him as his "idol". …

Guardiola, after he turned down the offer to be a director, assumed managerial duties of Barcelona B on 21 June 2007, with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. Under his guidance, the team subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. Barcelona President Joan Laporta announced in May 2008 that Guardiola would be appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–08 season.

Upon being appointed, Guardiola made headlines by announcing that stars such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto'o were not part of his plans for the coming season, though Eto'o was, in the end, allowed to remain.

In association with Barcelona Director of Sport Txiki Begiristain, several new signings were made by Guardiola – Dani Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from Sevilla; Martín Cáceres from Villarreal by way of Recreativo; Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United; and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted canteranos Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Jeffrén to the first-team squad. In interviews with the press, Guardiola stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with his players.

Guardiola's first competitive game as manager was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barcelona comfortably beat Polish club Wisła Kraków 4–0 in the first leg at home. They then lost 1–0 in the second leg, but progressed with a 4–1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening matchday of the 2008–09 La Liga, but the team then went on an undefeated streak for over 20 matches to move to the top of the league. Barcelona maintained their spot atop La Liga's table, securing their first league title since 2006 when rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal on 16 May 2009. The most important match, however, was on 2 May when they defeated Real Madrid 6–2 at the Santiago Bernabéu. The league title was the second piece of silverware in Guardiola's first season at the club. Earlier, on 13 May, Barcelona won the 2008–09 Copa del Rey, beating Athletic Bilbao 4–1 in the 2009 Copa del Rey final.

In the final of the Champions League, Barcelona beat Manchester United 2–0. …

Guardiola was born to Dolors and Valentí. He has two older sisters and a younger brother, Pere Guardiola, a football agent. He is an atheist. Guardiola met his wife Cristina Serra when he was 18. They married on 29 May 2014. They have three children named Maria, Màrius and Valentina. Serra and Guardiola split in 2025. He is a distant relative to Spanish politician Anna Balletbò.

Following his tenure as Barcelona's manager, he stated that he would move to the United States to live in Manhattan, New York, for a year, until he had decided on his future. To prepare for his position as the manager of Bayern Munich, Guardiola studied German for four to five hours each day.

Guardiola supports the political independence of Catalonia. In 2015, he confirmed that he would participate in the pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Sí, in that year's regional parliamentary election. He has spoken in support of the people of Palestine and condemned the civilian loss of life in the Gaza War, referring to the situation as a genocide against Palestinians.

On 24 May 2023, Guardiola made a cameo appearance in Ted Lasso, in which Ted Lasso's (played by Jason Sudeikis) team, A.F.C. Richmond, play against Manchester City and win. Guardiola gives Lasso a handshake following City's defeat and gives Lasso a word of advice, to which Lasso responds positively. Guardiola reportedly is a fan of the show and enjoys watching it with his wife and daughter.

Guardiola was one of the 13 sports personalities named in the Pandora Papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He had an account open in the principality of Andorra until 2012, exploiting the tax amnesty that Mariano Rajoy's conservative government had enacted in Spain to regularise his fiscal situation. Until that point, he had not declared the funds held in that account to the Spanish Tax Agency.