Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates his 50th birthday on Monday.
Here, the PA news agency picks out some of the highlights of his outstanding managerial career.
Incredible first Barcelona season
When Guardiola took over at Barcelona in 2008 after being promoted from their B team, the club were at a – relatively – low ebb. They had gone two years without a trophy and their play had become stale. Guardiola changed that dramatically. He cleared out some ageing pros – including Ronaldinho – transformed their playing style and put the formidable triumvirate of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi at the heart of the team. The resulting football was exhilarating and Barca swept almost all before them as they won a LaLiga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble.
Second Barcelona Champions League win
Barcelona powered on under Guardiola, going on to win the Club World Cup and LaLiga again in 2010 and 2011, among other successes. Their high-intensity brand of possession-based football, now widely known as tiki-taka, was the envy of the world game. His reign reached its peak as Messi-inspired Barca delivered a masterclass to beat Manchester United 3-1 in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley.
German doubles
Guardiola successfully took his footballing philosophy and winning mentality to Bayern Munich after deciding to leave Barcelona and take a year out of the game. He did not quite scale the same heights as the German club did not win the Champions League under his guidance, but they were dominant on the domestic front. They won the Bundesliga three years in succession under Guardiola and capped his time in Bavaria by claiming the double – for a second time – in 2016.
City break the 100-point barrier
After taking a year to find his feet in the English game, Guardiola spectacularly began to justify the hype that accompanied his move to Manchester City during an astounding 2017-18 campaign. City broke a whole host of records as they powered to the Premier League. Chief among them was their final points tally – 100 – while they also set new best marks for most goals (106), most wins (32) and biggest league-winning margin (19 points), as well as others.
City win unprecedented domestic treble
As well as winning the Premier League in 2017-18, Guardiola’s City also won the Carabao Cup. Their appetite for silverware showed no signs of being sated the following year, and indeed they even went one better, as they became the first English side to win the domestic treble. The Premier League was hard-fought as Liverpool pushed them all the way but they rounded off the campaign in emphatic fashion as they trounced Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup final.
