Pep Confidential (2 page)
Authors: Martí Perarnau
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks go to Lufthansa and the Munich U-Bahn (Metro) for getting me there on time.
And to the security guards at FC Bayern, led by Heinz Jünger, who sheltered me from the heat and the cold.
A huge thank you is also due to everyone at Munich’s Hotel Wetterstein, where I spent much of last year and felt very much at home.
Thanks also to Markus Hörwick, FC Bayern’s very able director of communications, and to his team Nina Aigner, Cristina Neumann, Holger Quest and Petra Trott.
I am enormously grateful to all the FC Bayern players, and in particular to Thiago Alcántara, Jerôme Boateng, Dante Bonfim, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Philipp Lahm, Javi Martínez, Manuel Neuer, Rafinha, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben and Bastian Schweinsteiger, for their collaboration and the kindness they have shown me.
Thanks also to Paul Breitner, Roman Grill, Jupp Heynckes, Jürgen Klopp, Alexis Menuge, Christoph Metzelder, Stefen Niemeyer, Manuel Pellegrini, Daniel Rathjen, Ronald Reng, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Xavier Sala i Martín, Christian Streich, Julien Wolff and Mounir Zitouni, who have all made interesting contributions to this book.
To Matthias Sammer, for all his passion and his German language tutorials.
Thanks also to Isaac Lluch, a young, talented journalist whose vital support for me, in every sense of the word, knew no bounds.
Sincere thanks to Guardiola’s technical team, Domènec Torrent, Lorenzo Buenaventura and Carles Planchart, without whose direction and advice it would have been impossible to understand the team’s training regime and playing style.
And to Manel Estiarte, the key that opens every door. It is impossible to express the enormous debt I owe him for all his help and support.
And finally, to Pep Guardiola, the man who gave me this opportunity to understand in depth the workings of an elite football team, for all the generosity he showed me even through the blackest moments of the season.
PART ONE
TIME, PATIENCE, PASSION
‘We need patience.’
KARL-HEINZ RUMMENIGGE
* * *
‘We need passion.’
MATTHIAS SAMMER
* * *
‘We need time.’
PEP GUARDIOLA
1
DINNER WITH KASPAROV
New York, October 2012
TAKING A LAST bite of salad, Garry Kasparov shook his head and muttered irritably: ‘Impossible!’
For the third time that night he tried to fend off Pep Guardiola’s relentless questioning. The Catalan was determined to understand why Kasparov would not even
consider
the idea of competing against the young maestro, Magnus Carlsen, the world’s most promising chess player.
Until then, the atmosphere over dinner had been perfectly congenial. Indeed, since meeting Kasparov a few weeks before, Pep had made no attempt to conceal his fascination for the great champion.
Kasparov embodies the qualities Pep prizes above all others: resilience, intelligence, dedication, persistence, inner strength and a healthy streak of rebelliousness. It had therefore been an absolute delight to meet up over a meal or two. So far the conversation had covered a range of topics from economics and technology to, inevitably, sport and competition.
Guardiola was a few months into his sabbatical from the elite of world football. He had promised himself a year of tranquility in New York and was just starting to enjoy it.
He had spearheaded a triumphant era at FC Barcelona, the most successful period in the Catalan club’s history – achievements which may never be matched. During his four years in charge he won a formidable total of 14 trophies out of the 19 available, including six titles in 2009 alone. Yet, despite all of the brilliance and passion, the experience had left him drained and exhausted. Increasingly dispirited, he had decided to leave Barça before the damage became irreparable.
New York represented a fresh start. He wanted the chance to switch off, forget the past and discover new ideas. This was an opportunity to recharge his batteries and top up the reserves of energy that had become so depleted. He was keen to spend time with his family, whom he had neglected under pressure of work.
There would also be time to touch base with old friends. One of those was Xavier Sala i Martín, professor of economics at Columbia University, who had been director of finance at Barça from 2009 to 2010, during Joan Laporta’s final term as president.
Sala i Martín, a renowned economist with an international reputation, is a good friend of the Guardiola family and has lived in New York for some time. His presence there was an important factor in overcoming the family’s misgivings about moving to the city. The children had not yet mastered English and Cristina, Pep’s wife, would have to leave her own job in the family business in Catalonia.
Initially, none of them was particularly enthusiastic about Pep’s proposal, but Sala i Martín persuaded them to give New York a go and so far the whole experience had proved much better than expected.
Sala i Martín also counts Garry Kasparov as a close friend and one autumn night was forced to decline a dinner invitation to the Guardiolas’ New York home: ‘Sorry Pep. I can’t make it tonight. I’m having dinner with the Kasparovs.’
He then suggested that his Catalan friend accompany him to the meal, an idea which delighted not just Pep but Kasparov and his wife, Daria, too.
During what was a fascinating evening, the conversation flowed despite the fact that neither chess nor football was mentioned. They talked about inventions and technology, about the value of breaking pre-established paradigms and the virtue of remaining steadfast in the face of uncertainty. Most of all, they talked about passion.
Central to the discussion was Kasparov’s rather bleak assertion that technological potential is being directed to the world of entertainment more than anything else. In his view, current technological advances lack the transcendence of their predecessors and this has helped contribute to worldwide economic stagnation.
According to the former world chess champion, even the birth of the internet can’t be compared to the transformative power of the invention of electricity, which resulted in authentic worldwide economic change. It gave women access to the workplace and doubled the total volume of the world economy. In other words, he believes that the economic impact of the internet in terms of market production rather than pure finance, is vastly inferior.
Citing the example of the iPhone, whose processing potential is far superior to that of the Apollo 11 computer, the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer), which had 100,000 times less RAM memory, he pointed out that whilst ACGs were used to put men on the moon, now we use mobile phones to kill little birds (a reference to the popular game
Angry Birds
).
Sala i Martín observed the encounter with some admiration.
‘It was fascinating to spend time with two such clever men and be privy to their discussions about technology, inventions, passion and complexity.’
The mutual fascination was such that a few weeks later they made a date for a second meal. Sala i Martín, who had left for South America, was unable to attend, but this time Cristina Serra, Pep’s wife, joined the group.
On this occasion the subject of chess was definitely on the agenda.
Guardiola was surprised by Kasparov’s intransigent attitude towards the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, whom he predicted would be the new world champion (Carlsen did indeed become champion a year later in November 2013, when he beat Viswanathan Anand 6.5 to 3.5).
Kasparov was unstinting in his praise of the great young maestro (then 22 years old), whom he had secretly trained in 2009. But he also pointed out the weaknesses Carlsen would have to overcome in order to dominate the world of chess.
It was then that Guardiola asked Kasparov if he felt capable of beating the emerging Norwegian. The response surprised him: ‘I have the ability to beat him, but in practice it is impossible.’
The answer struck Guardiola as little more than political correctness. It was, he assumed, an attempt by the impetuous Russian to be as diplomatic as possible. ‘But Garry,’ he insisted, ‘you have the ability, so why couldn’t you beat him?’
For the second time, the rejoinder was an emphatic ‘Impossible!’
