El Centrocampista

Top Ten Barcelona Players of All Time

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5 – JOSEP GUARDIOLA

Guardiola joined Barcelona’s La Masia academy in 1984 at the age of 13. During his first week with the club coach Johan Cruyff paid a surprise visit to an academy game and famously approached the dug-out to ask the youth team coach Charly Rexach who the skinny lad was playing on the right of midfield.

Cruyff asked Rexach to move him into the position know as “el pivote” for the second half, a deep-lying playmaker role, Guardiola took to the position immediately.

He made his debut against Cádiz in 1990 and after a suspension to Guillermo Amor, Guardiola established himself in the side that won the Primera Liga title and European Cup. His performances led Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo to proclaim him as the best player in the world under the age of 21.

Guardiola would become a key player in Cruyff’s dream team that won four consecutive league titles between 1991 and 1994.

He went on to win the Cup Winners’ Cup and Copa del Rey in the 1996-97 season under the management of Bobby Robson and completed his medal haul as a Barcelona player lifting consecutive league titles in 1998 and 1999.

Guardiola left the club in 2001 but his Barça legacy was not complete as he became the first team coach in 2008 and within three years made himself the most successful manager in the history of the club winning an incredible 13 titles from a possible 16.

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