Pep Guardiola flies high, but doesn’t go anywhere
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America, meet the anti-Brett Favre.
No, not Fran Tarkenton -- though the current NFL Hall of Famer recently took to the airwaves and ripped into the future one.
Rookie manager Josep Guardiola just led Barcelona to the European Cup (the Super Bowl for the original game of football), a crowning achievement in a career that never strayed far from Camp Nou.
Pep, as he’s called in Catalonia, began as a ballboy for his beloved Barça. He played in its youth academies and eventually made the squad, became captain, and led the team to its first European Cup victory. After 11 years with Barcelona (not counting six with its youth club), he wandered off to see his playing career fizzle in Italy, Qatar and Mexico. That could have been it.
In American sports, there aren’t many players who spend their entire life with one team. It’s especially rare to find somebody who achieves the pinnacle of the sport as a player and coach/manager without moving.
Los Angeles is focused on the Lakers right now and, sure, Kobe Bryant may close out his career in yellow and gold. Then what? The man who brought him to town, Jerry West, is now general manager for the Memphis Grizzlies (and he wasn’t actually a coach). Mike Scioscia was a career Dodger, but now manages the other Los Angeles team that’s not even in Los Angeles.
Farve isn’t the first to wander astray as a player. It seems like any Joe might do it, from Namath in Los Angeles to Montana in Kansas City. Of course, Guardiola didn’t close out in blue and red -- but he did return.
Last year he managed Barcelona’s B-side, and this year, well ... the picture says it all. Incidentally, seven of Guardiola’s 11 starters were products of the club’s youth system. No wonder its motto is ‘Més que un club’ (More than a club).
Have any good examples of American players who achieved similar success with their original team on the sidelines? Leave a comment below....
-- Adam Rose