Pep Guardiola was born on 18 January 1971 in Santpedor, Spain. He joined Barcelona’s youth system and made his first-team debut during the 1990/91 season. Playing mainly as a defensive midfielder, Guardiola became an important part of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona side and spent more than a decade with the senior team. He won six La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey trophies and the European Cup in 1992, when Barcelona defeated Sampdoria at Wembley. He later played for Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar and Dorados in Mexico before ending his playing career in 2006. Pep Guardiola also won 47 caps for Spain and was part of the Spanish team that won Olympic gold at Barcelona 1992.
Guardiola began coaching Barcelona B in 2007 and led the team to promotion during his only season in charge. In 2008, at the age of 37, he replaced Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona’s first-team coach. His first season ended with La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, making Barcelona the first Spanish club to complete the continental treble. Later in 2009, the club added the Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, completing an unprecedented six-trophy calendar year.
Barcelona won 14 trophies during Pep Guardiola’s four seasons in charge. His record included three La Liga championships, two Copa del Rey trophies, three Spanish Super Cups, two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups. His second Champions League success came against Manchester United at Wembley in 2011, two years after Barcelona had beaten the same opponents in the 2009 final. Guardiola left the club in 2012 after four seasons with the first team.
After a year away from management, Pep Guardiola became Bayern Munich coach in 2013. Bayern won the Bundesliga in each of his three seasons, as well as two DFB-Pokal trophies. The club also won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup during his first campaign. Guardiola reached the Champions League semi-finals in all three seasons with Bayern but did not take the club to the final. He left Germany in 2016 having won seven trophies.
Pep Guardiola took charge of Manchester City in the summer of 2016. His first major trophy in England was the League Cup in 2018, followed by the Premier League title with a record 100 points. The following season, City became the first English men’s team to win the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield in the same campaign.
The 2022/23 season brought Guardiola his third Champions League title as a coach. City defeated Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul to complete a treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. It was Guardiola’s second European treble after achieving the same feat with Barcelona in 2008/09, making him the first coach in the men’s game to complete the treble twice. City followed that season by winning the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
City won a fourth consecutive Premier League title in 2023/24, becoming the first men’s club in English football history to win four successive top-flight championships. Across Guardiola’s decade in Manchester, City won six Premier League titles. His final season, 2025/26, ended with victories in both the FA Cup and League Cup before he stepped down after ten years in charge.
Pep Guardiola finished his Manchester City career with 20 major trophies: six Premier League titles, five League Cups, three FA Cups, three Community Shields, one Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. Combined with his trophies at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, his managerial career has included league championships in Spain, Germany and England and three Champions League titles – Barcelona in 2009 and 2011 and Manchester City in 2023.
As a coach, Guardiola’s teams have been closely associated with positional play, prolonged possession, building attacks from the goalkeeper and defenders, aggressive pressing after losing the ball and frequent positional changes between midfielders and defenders. Those principles have appeared in different forms at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, with the exact formations and player roles changing across his career.
Pep Guardiola left Manchester City at the end of the 2025/26 season. The club announced that he would remain connected to the City Football Group as a Global Ambassador, providing technical advice and working on selected projects across the group.
