Pep Guardiola will take over as Manchester City head coach at the end of the season.
The Spaniard, who has enjoyed great success as a coach with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, will succeed Manuel Pellegrini at the Etihad Stadium on a three-year contract.
Here are 10 interesting facts about the 45-year-old, who had also been linked with Manchester United and Chelsea.
- As a youngster doing ball-boy duties, Guardiola was once refused an autograph by Michel Platini, when offered a poster of the Frenchman which had adorned Guardiola’s childhood wall.
- Guardiola is an art lover, and spent much of his sabbatical in New York – after leaving Barcelona – around the galleries of the Big Apple.
- Guardiola’s clothing has made headlines in the past. He wore a T-shirt in a pre-match press conference last season ahead of the Champions League clash against Porto carrying a slogan promoting a campaign for justice surrounding the death of an Argentinean journalist. Guardiola then celebrated Bayern’s come-from-behind victory over Porto just that little bit too much, causing a noticeable tear down one side of his trousers. He has famous company on that front at least in David Moyes and Jose Mourinho.
- Speaking of clothes, Guardiola’s relationship with wife Cristina Serra grew around the latter’s family clothes shop in Manresa, in Spain’s north-east.
- A love of smart clothes naturally translates to a love of… golf. A keen player, Guardiola attended the 2012 ‘Miracle in Medinah’ on the invitation of Europe’s Ryder Cup captain and compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal.
- Aside from his playing career in Europe, Guardiola spent time with Al Ahly of Qatar and then Dorados de Sinaloa of Mexico, which proved his swansong.
- Guardiola does not conduct one-on-one interviews – only press conferences.
- Guardiola is from the small Catalan town of Santpedor in north-east Spain. In honour of Guardiola’s achievements, the home ground of local team CF Santpedor was given the name Camp Municipal Josep Guardiola.
- The municipal council also named Guardiola their “favourite son of the town” in October 2009
.10. When preparing for life in Germany, Guardiola reportedly spent hours with a German teacher while in New York. He gave parts of his first Bayern Munich press conference in German.
