Guardiola helps Girona surpass Barcelona and Real Madrid

Girona is flying high in La Liga. It's no exaggeration to say: Girona is Guardiola's team. Yes, but of course not Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, but his younger brother Pere Guardiola – a star in top-level football, in his role as a player agent. Just look at his list of clients to see Pere Guardiola's caliber in the agent world: Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta, Thiago Alcantara, Ronaldo (Brazil), Ronaldinho…

Girona are flying high in La Liga.

Together with businessman Juane Roures, Pere opened the Media Base Sports agency, and then bought Girona FC. Sporting director Quique Carcel and many Girona players were then clients of Pere. The subsequent acquisition led to Media Base Sports (owned by Pere Guardiola) and City Football Group (CFG) becoming co-owners of Girona, each holding 44% of the club's shares. Not surprisingly, CFG is the same group that owns Manchester City and manager Pep Guardiola. CFG owns football clubs around the world such as Manchester City (England), Sichuan Jiu-yu (China), Melbourne City (Australia), Yokohama F.Marinos (Japan), Palermo (Italy), New York City FC (USA), Troyes (France), Bahia (Brazil), and Girona FC (Spain)!

Recently, CFG's stake in Girona has continued to increase, but Girona's operating methods haven't changed since CFG's inception in the middle of the last decade. Manchester City's CEO Ferran Soriano and Director of Football Txiki Begiristain are both very familiar with the Guardiola brothers, having both come from Barcelona. In their first year together, Manchester City loaned Girona 12 players. Mutual professional support is a common operating method among the dozen or so teams CFG owns. Add the "Guardiola factor" to that, and imagine how closely Girona and Manchester City are connected!

Of course, everything was done cautiously to avoid legal complications. For example, in England, agents are prohibited from having a vested interest (shareholding or salary) in a club. In Spain, this is not prohibited, so Pere Guardiola is free to own the team for which he has been receiving commissions in the transfer market. Later, if Spain has unfavorable laws while England has more lenient regulations, perhaps Girona's offices will be moved to London or Manchester!

For now, the close relationship between Girona and Man. City could lead to major conflicts of interest. UEFA does not allow clubs with the same owner to compete in the same UEFA competition. Of course, Man. City will be back in the Champions League next season. But what about Girona? There's a realistic possibility! This is only Girona's fourth season in history at the highest level of Spanish football. Last season they were promoted and finished impressively in the middle of the table. This season is even better, with Girona winning six consecutive matches to take the top spot after seven rounds. They lost to Real Madrid in the next game. But now, Girona is back at the top of the table again after 12 rounds. Coach Michel's team is 2 points ahead of second-placed Real Madrid, 4 points ahead of Barcelona, ​​and 10 points ahead of fifth-placed teams. Across the five biggest European leagues, only two teams are scoring more goals than Girona (those are Bayern Munich and Leverkusen, in the Bundesliga, which is known for its very high scoring rate).

Ambitions to win La Liga? Girona qualifying for the Champions League would be unimaginable. But it must be said: Girona is playing very well this season. That's a huge surprise, but it's not a coincidence at all. Remember: Financial Fair Play regulations still require Girona to operate within a budget of only a few tens of millions of euros, even though they are a "CFG team".

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