FCBARCELONA.CAT

16.05.2010 20:57

Guardiola continues to make history

Vanessa Forns

Josep Guardiola has become the only the fourth FC Barcelona coach to win the league title twice in his first two years in charge at the helm of the Catalan giants.

Last term the former playmaker became the seventh Barça trainer to win the championship in his first season in charge and now this year he has written another chapter in the record books for himself. Guardiola joins a highly select group of bosses after seeing his team clinch top spot after Real Madrid were unable to catch them.

Enrique Fernández

The first coach to achieve the feat of winning league titles back-to-back in his first two seasons was Uruguayan Enrique Fernández who was in charge between 1947 and 1950 having played for the club between 1934 and 1936. Barça won the title under him in the 1947/48 and 1948/49 seasons.

Helenio Blacksmith and Van Gaal

Helenio Herrera became the second trainer to open his time in charge with title wins as the Argentinian enjoyed success in 1958/59 and 1959/60. Louis van Gaal was next, almost 40 years later, when he led the Blaugrana to the top in 1997/98 and 1998/99.

First Catalan

With the other three paving the way, Guardiola has been able to add one more detail to his triumphs as he became the first Catalan on the list.

Hat-trick challenge

If Guardiola were to go one better and make it a hat-trick of titles in his first three seasnos in charge then he would become the first coach ever to achieve that in charge of FC Barcelona.