‘Guardiola did football a lot of harm’ – Lionel Messi reveals what makes Pep Guardiola ‘special’
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Lionel Messi believes Pep Guardiola is the best manager he has played under
Paris Saint-Germain’s Lionel Messi has acknowledged Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola as the finest boss he has ever had. The Spanish coach led Barcelona from 2008 and 2012, winning three La Liga championships, two UEFA Champions League trophies, and other honours. Messi was unstoppable during Guardiola’s reign.
Messi has remembered keen recollections of his period at Camp Nou under Guardiola, with the duo winning a series of silverware together between 2008 and 2012, which include two Champions League titles. Messi has lauded current Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola as the greatest manager he’s ever featured for, whilst also joking that cheap impersonations of his distinctive style of play have effected the modern game.
“Guardiola did a lot of harm to football too because it seemed so easy, so simple that everyone wanted to copy it… Later I found many ‘Guardiolas’ out there, and you realize what we did, what that was.” Lionel Messi said as reported by ESPN via Universe Valdano.
Lionel Messi opined that Pep Guardiola, the former manager of Barcelona, damaged football by making it appear so “simple” that everyone decided to clone it. In 219 games across all competitions while playing for the Spaniard, he contributed 94 assists in addition to 211 goals. The 2011–12 season under Guardiola was Messi’s most prolific one to date, with 73 goals and 32 assists in 50 games throughout all tournaments.
Where are Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola right now?
After finishing the 2011–12 season with Barcelona, Guardiola took a little break before taking over as boss of Bayern Munich the subsequent year. He quit the German powerhouses in 2016 to take command at Manchester City, where he has since collected four Premier League crowns.
In the meantime, Messi left Camp Nou before the start of the 2021–22 campaign and signed with PSG. With their individual contracts expiring at the end of the current campaign, Messi and Guardiola could both become independent free agents the following summer.
The Paris Saint-Germain player’s remarks coincide with fresh speculation that he might return Camp Nou again in 2023. The president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, declared that the club will invariably be his home, and striker Robert Lewandowski said it would be a dream to play with him.
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