How Good Was Pep Guardiola as a Player?

Luis Antonio Rodríguez Ochoa, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The majority of us will be aware of Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola’s incredible abilities as a football manager. He’s managed FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, but in this article we ask, how good was Pep Guardiola as a player?

Yes, the grandmaster himself had a colourful playing career before he stepped into the world of football management and tactics. Having made his name at Catalan powerhouses Barcelona, he spent some time in Serie A before ending his career in Qatar and Mexico.

In this detailed article, we take a deep dive into the playing career of one of the greatest football minds ever. We discuss his youth career, playing style, honours and much more. Read on to find out!

How Good Was Pep Guardiola as a Player?

Pep Guardiola was an impressive deep lying midfielder, who was a core part of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona “Dream Team” from 1990-1996. He was known for his technical ability on the ball and has inspired many great midfielders including Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.

Early Life and Youth Career

Like the majority of Barcelona’s greatest players, including Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta, Pep Guardiola graduated from the club’s La Masia academy. He played at La Masia for 6 years (1984-1990), and played for Barcelona’s C and B sides before making his first team debut in 1990.

It wouldn’t be long before we’d have to introduce Dutch manager Johan Cruyff in this article, and it turns out that he came across Guardiola during his first week of being Barcelona manager. He went to watch a youth match down at Mini Estadi, the pitch most commonly used by Barcelona B. Prior to half-time, Cruyff asked youth team manager ​​Charly Rexach who was playing right midfield.

He replied, “Guardiola, a good lad”, and Cruyff recommended that he move him into central midfield to play as a pivot. Pivots weren’t a popular position in Spain at that time, but Guardiola took to it with ease, as Cruyff had predicted. Upon his arrival in the first team in 1990, Guardiola became the pivot for Cruyff’s famous “Dream Team”.

Playing Style and Position

Guardiola was a midfielder with a wide skill set, capable of playing in a range of midfield positions. Although he was more than capable of playing in advanced midfield roles, he spent the majority of his career playing as a 6, in a pivot that sits in front of the defensive line.

Attacking Midfielder

Guardiola was able to break up play and press opponents effectively in more advanced midfield positions. However, while he was making a nuisance of himself in the final third, Guardiola had a bad habit of giving away numerous fouls. This made him much better suited to a deeper lying midfield role, typically playing as a 6.

As a 6

For the majority of his career, for both club and country, Pep Guardiola played as a 6, taking up spaces directly in front of the defensive line. This complimented his skill set well, as he was intelligent, precise with the ball, and efficient, demonstrated clear technical qualities on a football pitch.

Guardiola wasn’t a physically strong player, but what he lacked in physicality, he more than made up for in intelligence. His vision, range of passing, composure and positional sense, meant that he was incredible at keeping the ball under pressure. This is something we’ve seen him implement into the sides that he’s managed, in particular Manchester City.

He would dictate the playing tempo of the Barcelona sides he played in by either making short precise passes or by switching play with long accurate passes across the pitch. In addition to all of these qualities, Guardiola had often been an attacking presence for his sides, making intelligent runs at the right times, or by shooting accurately from long distance.

At times, Guardiola has been likened to a “Metodista”, which is a “Centre-Half” in Italian. This role involves dictating midfield player and assisting in defensive duties.

A Leader

Having captained both Barcelona and the Spanish national side, Pep Guardiola was a natural-born leader. This helped him become even more of an inspiration for future Spanish midfielders.

Club Career

FC Barcelona (1990-2001)

Under Johan Cruyff

After breaking into the Barcelona first team in 1990. Pep Guardiola became a regular in the starting eleven in the 1991/92 La Liga season. He was only 20 years old at the time, and helped Barcelona win the league title and European cup during that season.

Johan Cruyff’s “Dream Team” were able to subsequently retain the La Liga title for the following two seasons (1992/93 and 1993/94), with Guardiola continuing to play a vital role in the side.

Under Bobby Robson

Following Cruyff’s managerial exit in 1996, Guardiola retained his place in Barcelona’s midfield, now under Bobby Robson’s guidance. The 1996/97 season, proved to be a successful one for Guardiola and Barcelona, with the side winning the following three cups:

• Copa del Rey
• Supercopa de España
• European Cup Winners’ Cup

Bobby Robson’s reign at Barcelona only lasted one season.

Under Louis van Gaal

By this time, the majority of the “Dream Team” had now left the club, with players like Ronaldo and Luis Figo now being integral to the starting XI. Louis van Gaal had taken over as manager, helping them win two consecutive league titles in the 1997/98 and 1998/99 seasons, as well as the Spanish Cup.

Guardiola was named captain of the club during van Gaal’s first season, however a calf injury kept him out of the side for the majority of the 1997/98 season. He was able to return and play a key part in the success of the 1998/99 season, playing 26 games across all competitions, scoring 1 goal.

He underwent surgery for his calf injury in June 1998, which meant that he had to miss the 1998 World Cup in France. Guardiola’s luck continued to decline when the 1999/2000 season resulted in him having further surgery, after sustaining a serious ankle injury. He missed the final three months of this disappointing season, where Barcelona won nothing.

Brescia and Roma (2001-2003)

After being at Barcelona for a combined 17 years (1984-2001), Pep Guardiola made a move away from La Liga to join Serie A side Brescia. He was signed by the club to fill the void left by fellow deep lying midfielder Andrea Pirlo, who had moved to AC Milan. He played in a pivot with Roberto Baggio while playing for Le Rondinelle (The Little Swallows).

After only playing 11 games for Brescia, scoring 2 goals, he moved to Italian giants Roma, where he only ended up making 5 appearances in all competitions. In a surprising turn of events, he then went back to Brescia in the same season (2002/03), making 13 appearances and scoring 1 goal.

Guardiola’s time in Italy was nothing short of unsuccessful, and was further tainted when he was banned for four months in 2001 after failing a drugs test for nandrolone, which is an anabolic steroid.

6 years later in 2007, after his retirement from playing, Guardiola was cleared of all charges linked to the ban.

Al-Ahli and Dorados (2003-2006)

To round off his career, Guardiola played for two seasons in the Qatar Stars League for Al-Ahli. He made 36 league appearances, scoring 5 goals, however his involvement in cup competitions is unknown.

In 2005, he decided to play the last season of his career in the Mexican Primera División for Dorados de Sinaloa. During his time in Mexico, he played 10 league matches, scoring 1 goal. Something that most people don’t know about Guardiola, is that he gave “envelopes of cash” to the lowest played employees at the Mexican club.

International Career

In addition to his coveted domestic career, Guardiola had a successful international career playing for Spain. He played 47 appearances for the senior team, scoring 5 goals.

Guardiola also represented his country at the 1992 Summer Olympics, which were conveniently held in Barcelona. Spain went on to win the football gold medal at the games. This meant that they were the first host country to win the gold medal in an Olympic football tournament since Belgium in 1920. This has since been repeated by Brazil, who won it in 2016.

The gold medal, won in 1992, would subsequently be the only honours that Guardiola would achieve while playing for his country. He probably feels hard done by, as after his international career had ended, Spain became a dominant force in international football, winning the Euros twice (in 2008 & 2012) and the 2010 World Cup.

Awards and Honours

During his playing career, Pep Guardiola won 17 trophies, with 16 of them being won whilst playing for Barcelona. He won the following honours:

• 6x Spanish Titles (1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94, 1997/98 and 1998/99)
• 4x Spanish Super Cup Winner (1990/91, 1991/92, 1993/94 and 1995/96)
• 1x Olympic Medallist (1992)
• 1x European Champion Clubs’ Cup Winner (1991/92)
• 2x UEFA Supercup Winner (1992/93 and 1996/97)
• 2x Spanish Cup Winner (1996/97 and 1997/98)
• 1x Europapokal Der Pokalsieger (1996/97)

Pep Guardiola’s Playing Legacy

Although Guardiola has had a huge influence on football management, he also left a strong legacy after retiring from playing the beautiful game. Several Barcelona greats, including Xavi and Iniesta have been quoted saying that Guardiola has been a key influence in the way that they played football throughout their careers.

Conclusion

How good was Pep Guardiola as a player? An intelligent leader, he had a wide skill set that meant he was best at dictating play and assisting his club and country in defensive duties. Having been a fundamental part of the famous Barcelona “Dream Team”, Guardiola could and did play at the highest levels.

Unfortunately, Guardiola was injury prone throughout his career, having suffered calf and ankle injuries that required surgery. Despite this, he was a great, great player who inspired some of the most impressive Spanish midfielders we’ve ever seen.

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