18.05.2009 13:23
Guardiola joins select group
Roger Bogunyà
Josep Guardiola has become the seventh manager to win the league championship in his first year and the third manager to win the league with Barça having already done so as a player.
Guardiola keeps insisting that the merit for all Barça’s success goes down to his players,
but he too does deserve much of the recognition. In his first year, he has guided the side to the
league and cup double, and they are also in the Champions League final. His only previous
managerial experience was with Barça Atlètic in the Third Division, who he guided up to Division
2B, but he has already won his place in club history.
Seven out of eleven
Guardiola already belongs to several elite groups. He has become the eleventh manager
to win the league with Barça, following on from Romà Forns, Josep Samitier, Enrique Fernández,
Ferdinand Daucik, Helenio Herrera, Rinus Michels, Terry Venables, Johan Cruyff, Louis van Gaal and
Frank Rijkaard. Of that eleven, only Daucik, Michels, Cruyff and Rijkaard won the league in their
first season at the club.
Champion on field and bench
Guardiola is also one of the few players to
have won the league as both a player and manager. Only Josep Samitier and Johan Cruyff have done
that before. Samitier was in the side that won the fist ever Spanish championship in 1928 and then
managed the club to its second title in 1945.
Johan Cruyff was one of the stars of the team of 1973/74 and then managed the Dream Team to
four consecutive title from 1990 to 1994, when young Josep Guardiola was one of his most important
discoveries.
Third Catalan
Guardiola also becomes the latest Catalan to win the league trophy. His only predecessors in
this department were Romà Forns (1927/28) and Josep Samitier (1944/45). It is 64 years since FC
Barcelona won the league under a Catalan manager.
Click
here
to view all the managers in the history of FC Barcelona.