Pep Guardiola: "The traveler" is not alone

Just like when "The Citizens" successfully defended the Premier League title in mid-May, fans and experts, in addition to praising Man City's "treble" after the Champions League final on the morning of June 11, have calmed down to look at the role of coach Pep Guardiola in Man City's series of miracles.

Taking Barcelona to new heights

Looking at the banners, like "Pep changed football" or the image of the Spanish coach flooding the sports pages in England as well as around the world in the past 24 hours, surely those who are indifferent to football can understand how important Pep plays in the glorious journey of Man City, one of the new prides of football in the foggy country.

Before the Champions League final, Thierry Henry, in his role as a football commentator on television, called Pep "the best coach in history". On another TV channel, Rio Ferdinand declared: "Pep is the greatest because of his influence and always makes others follow, something that even Sir Alex Ferguson or Carlo Ancelotti could not do".

Pep Guadiola: Kẻ lữ hành không đơn độc - Ảnh 1.

Coach Pep Guardiola has achieved incredible achievements in European football. Photo: REUTERS

Many leading experts agree with the views of these two former players. The late coach Johan Cruyff once said that when he took over as Barcelona's head coach in 2008, the first thing Pep said at the club was "to elevate the club to a new level with more perfect football". As someone who always seeks perfection, Pep and his team won the "treble" in the first season and in just 4 years, Barcelona under Pep won a total of 14 titles, including 2 Champions Leagues and an unprecedented "sextuple" in the 2009-2010 season.

Thirst for innovation and creativity

Moving to work with Bayern Munich since 2013, Pep led the "Bavarian Tigers" to win 3 consecutive Bundesliga championships, the most important mark in a total of 7 titles he brought to the Allianz Arena within 3 seasons. Joining Man City, Pep Guardiola successfully conquered all the titles of the foggy country, including winning 5 Premier League championships in the last 6 seasons, including 3 consecutive crowns.

If titles are the "measure of success" as coach Jose Mourinho said, then the Catalan coach is on his way to becoming the best, not only because of his trophy collection but also because of his endless passion: Always eager to make the team innovate, play better, and be more creative. Waking up early every day, he immediately sends messages to his colleagues to convey ideas; works tirelessly and takes advantage of the afternoon to take a nap... Pep has been in the profession for only 14 years and has won 35 major titles in the top 3 European leagues.

If more than a decade ago, Pep's Barcelona reshaped world football, now Man City under his leadership has performed almost perfect football, overwhelming all the strongest opponents in the world today. Many colleagues imbued with the football philosophy and tactics initiated by Pep, admit to being greatly influenced by this 52-year-old man, from only Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona) and Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) now have Roberto De Zerbi (Brighton), Erik ten Hag (Man United), Vincent Kompany (Burnley) ...

Many experts believe that if Pep Guardiola were still with Man City, with the almost never-ending purse of the Arab owners, this team would create more miracles, including "unprecedented" ones in English and European football.

Pep has indeed spent £1.074 billion since arriving at the Etihad, freely shopping until he has a satisfactory squad. If you say money helps Man City win the Champions League, ask that to PSG - the "young master" with enough conditions to have more than enough money but certainly still lacks a Pep Guardiola to reach success.

Italian football's European dream collapses

Almost creating an earthquake when there were 5 representatives in the semi-finals of 3 European cups and 3 of them reached the final, but within just 2 weeks, Fiorentina, AS Roma and Inter Milan fell one after another in the final match in 3 fronts: Europa League, Europa Conference League and Champions League.

Instead of winning at least one trophy, the Italian football representatives all fell at the threshold of heaven and could not bring home any titles. AS Roma took the lead in the Europa League final against Sevilla but still drew and lost in the penalty shootout. Fiorentina then lost 1-2 to West Ham in the Europa Conference League final despite their opponents only barely surviving in England.

In the most prestigious tournament in Europe, Inter Milan, despite creating many opportunities, could not successfully take advantage of them in the final match against Man City in the early morning of June 11. The 0-1 defeat to Man City further lengthened Inter Milan's pain as they had been waiting for this moment of coronation for the past 13 years.

Having lost three consecutive European Cup finals, Italian football will have to wait a long time before it can hope for a comeback. According to many experts, the recent breakthrough of Serie A representatives comes from the outstanding efforts of each team, not the overall progress of Italian football as a whole.

Financial difficulties are still weighing heavily on Serie A as in recent years, which is why the new champion Napoli will definitely part ways with coach Luciano Spalletti due to conflicts with the team's president; Inter Milan is in debt estimated at nearly 1 billion USD; or Jose Mourinho will likely part ways with AS Roma due to not being able to meet their request to increase players...

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