Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography by Guillem Balagué Page A
Authors: Guillem Balagué
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the thumbs-up to Pep’s signing, and replaced him with Marcello
Lippi. Juventus sold Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid and suddenly their objectives changed: with the €76 million from Zidane’s transfer fee – then themost
expensive in history – the Italians decided to build a younger team, bringing in Pavel Nedved, Lilian Thuram, Marcelo Salas and Gianluigi Buffon.
As the summer passed, opportunities and options from some surprising corners emerged. Real Madrid even sounded him out in a meeting in Paris. ‘Have you gone mad!?’ Guardiola replied
in a conversation that lasted all of two minutes.
The deadline for Champions League registration came and went, making it increasingly difficult for Pep to join one of the biggest clubs. He had even come close to signing for Arsenal, but, the
day before the deadline, Patrick Vieira’s proposed move to Real Madrid broke down and the deal taking Guardiola to north London collapsed.
It was a difficult time for Pep, not least because the Catalan press were asked by some enemies of the player to publish that no other club wanted him so the club would be protected from
criticism that they had lost a good player.
With the possibility of playing in the Champions League now no longer an option, Pep accepted an offer from Serie A side Brescia. The team coach, Carlo Mazzone, made a point of telling Pep as
soon as he arrived that he was there because of the president, not because he wanted him. Guardiola was determined to prove his worth with his work on the pitch and accepted the premise. He signed
a contract when the season had already started, on 26 September 2001, but his debut wasn’t until 14 October against Chievo Verona.
A month and a half after joining Brescia, the Italian team was already playing the way Pep, rather than the coach, wanted but Mazzone was shrewd enough not to object to the ideas Pep introduced
to the squad. One day, Pep asked for videos of the forthcoming opposition for the players and staff to analyse, something that had never before been done at the club. The fact is, instead of
viewing the move to Brescia as a step down in his career, Pep saw it as a way of getting to know a new style of football and consequently a way of enriching his tactical knowledge: at this stage he
had decided he wanted to continue to be involved in the game when his playing career ended. Football was his passion, his obsession, the thing he knew best, and Serie A was considered the league
that practisedthe most advanced defensive tactics since Sacchi. His Milan of the eighties were regarded as having set the benchmark in terms of work rate and defensive strategy
over the previous two decades – and Pep was determined to learn as much as he could from his time in Italy.
Brescia training ground. A cold November morning, 2001
The lengthy periods of injury, his departure from Barcelona or sporting defeats pale into insignificance compared with the emotional ordeal Pep suffered after failing a drugs
test during his time at Brescia: firstly, after a game against Piacenza on 21 October 2001 and then, a week later, against Lazio on 4 November. The results of further analysis of the samples sent
to a laboratory in Rome supported the accusation that Pep had taken nandrolone, an anabolic steroid that is said to improve an individual’s strength and endurance and has similar properties
to testosterone.
Guardiola received the news about the supposed positive result while practising free kicks in a training session. ‘I saw Carletto Mazzone speaking with the team doctor. That moment, that
conversation, changed my life, but I only knew that later,’ Pep recalled recently. ‘They came over to me and told me the news. When I went back to the changing room I knew from the
missed calls on my phone that the world had already judged me.’
That same day, Pep called Manel Estiarte, in his day the Maradona of water polo, Olympic champion and friend who played in Italy and with
Lippi. Juventus sold Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid and suddenly their objectives changed: with the €76 million from Zidane’s transfer fee – then themost
expensive in history – the Italians decided to build a younger team, bringing in Pavel Nedved, Lilian Thuram, Marcelo Salas and Gianluigi Buffon.
As the summer passed, opportunities and options from some surprising corners emerged. Real Madrid even sounded him out in a meeting in Paris. ‘Have you gone mad!?’ Guardiola replied
in a conversation that lasted all of two minutes.
The deadline for Champions League registration came and went, making it increasingly difficult for Pep to join one of the biggest clubs. He had even come close to signing for Arsenal, but, the
day before the deadline, Patrick Vieira’s proposed move to Real Madrid broke down and the deal taking Guardiola to north London collapsed.
It was a difficult time for Pep, not least because the Catalan press were asked by some enemies of the player to publish that no other club wanted him so the club would be protected from
criticism that they had lost a good player.
With the possibility of playing in the Champions League now no longer an option, Pep accepted an offer from Serie A side Brescia. The team coach, Carlo Mazzone, made a point of telling Pep as
soon as he arrived that he was there because of the president, not because he wanted him. Guardiola was determined to prove his worth with his work on the pitch and accepted the premise. He signed
a contract when the season had already started, on 26 September 2001, but his debut wasn’t until 14 October against Chievo Verona.
A month and a half after joining Brescia, the Italian team was already playing the way Pep, rather than the coach, wanted but Mazzone was shrewd enough not to object to the ideas Pep introduced
to the squad. One day, Pep asked for videos of the forthcoming opposition for the players and staff to analyse, something that had never before been done at the club. The fact is, instead of
viewing the move to Brescia as a step down in his career, Pep saw it as a way of getting to know a new style of football and consequently a way of enriching his tactical knowledge: at this stage he
had decided he wanted to continue to be involved in the game when his playing career ended. Football was his passion, his obsession, the thing he knew best, and Serie A was considered the league
that practisedthe most advanced defensive tactics since Sacchi. His Milan of the eighties were regarded as having set the benchmark in terms of work rate and defensive strategy
over the previous two decades – and Pep was determined to learn as much as he could from his time in Italy.
Brescia training ground. A cold November morning, 2001
The lengthy periods of injury, his departure from Barcelona or sporting defeats pale into insignificance compared with the emotional ordeal Pep suffered after failing a drugs
test during his time at Brescia: firstly, after a game against Piacenza on 21 October 2001 and then, a week later, against Lazio on 4 November. The results of further analysis of the samples sent
to a laboratory in Rome supported the accusation that Pep had taken nandrolone, an anabolic steroid that is said to improve an individual’s strength and endurance and has similar properties
to testosterone.
Guardiola received the news about the supposed positive result while practising free kicks in a training session. ‘I saw Carletto Mazzone speaking with the team doctor. That moment, that
conversation, changed my life, but I only knew that later,’ Pep recalled recently. ‘They came over to me and told me the news. When I went back to the changing room I knew from the
missed calls on my phone that the world had already judged me.’
That same day, Pep called Manel Estiarte, in his day the Maradona of water polo, Olympic champion and friend who played in Italy and with
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