PEP GUARDIOLA is known throughout the world of football as one of the most successful managers of all time.

However, even if his younger brother, Pere, does not make the same international headlines as the Manchester City boss, he is making his own wave in European football.

4

4

4

At 48, Pere – pronounced Pera – Guardiola, five years his younger brother, helped transform the fortunes of Spanish club Girona.

The Catalan club has won a historic place in the Champions League after finishing third La Liga last season and will face six-time winners Liverpool competing tonight.

Minnows have highly sought-after coach Míchel, and although he won’t return to the top flight until 2022, Guardiola believes the club is an incredibly attractive prospect for players.

Talk to Yahoo Sportshe said: “Girona is a very good place to soccer. THE weather report it’s great. The area is good.

“The club itself has pressure because we live football 24 hours a day, but the environment and the history there doesn’t have that pressure like in the big clubs.

“But we are starting to have a history and we are starting to put pressure on because we know the level we want to reach and if we don’t do it we have to question ourselves.

“It means that this environment is very nice for football lovers and there is always a chance for anyone to come to Girona one day and play for Girona or coach Girona. Because the environment is calm.”

Guardiola even joked with his brother that “the day you’re bored, you can come and coach Girona”, although he admits this is more of a pipe dream than a realistic reality.

The two brothers grew up together in the small town of Santpedor, located between Girona and Barcelonaand share a common philosophy and passion for the beautiful game.

BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR BOOKMAKER UKS

He attributes much of this philosophy to pioneering player and manager Johan Cruyff, explaining: “OK, at the end of the day, it’s a bit of the philosophy of Barça, of Cruyff.

“Things don’t happen because they happen by chance. Things don’t happen the way you think because you have better skills.

“Things happen because there is a kind of pattern: knowing that if you have a player better than the opponent, you will have more chances. We must never forget that it is about the players.

“I grew up eating this every day. The coach, the sporting director and the structure of the club are very important but we need good players.

“That doesn’t mean expensive players, but players who can fit in. And we help them improve.

“Because if we don’t play good football, it’s like tossing a coin in the air. One day you can win, one day you can lose, but most of the time you will struggle .

“Trying to play good football, to control all departments on the pitch, will bring you closer to victory.”

However, while Pep managed to make a name for himself as a player at Barcelona, ​​Pere was an attacking midfielder in the lower leagues, but quickly made a name for himself in a football agency by signing some of their players. Spain most prodigious talents.

Guardiola explained: “I was good at bringing people together, making things happen, getting them to agree.

“I realized as I grew up that I could do that. I was good at matching the right side to the left side and I enjoyed it and did well.

“I was with Nike for 10, 12 years and I started by making young players wear Nike shoes. I signed Andres Iniesta when he was 14 I signed Fernando Torres when he was 14.

“I grew up with them and ended up managing Ronaldo Careers of Nazário and Ronaldinho. One was in Madrid and the other was in Barcelona.

“Every week it was Monday, Tuesday in Madrid, Wednesday, Thursday in Barcelona, ​​because I ran both. All that experience helped me. Then I started my own company as a agent.

“When I arrived at Girona I had a margin of maneuver which really helped me to know what’s going on, what the agents think, what the players think. Now it’s one of the things that I have made and that I love the most.”

Guardiola’s involvement with Girona began in 2015, when the club was in danger of going bankrupt. And he admits he was not looking for investment in the club until sporting director Quique Carcel suggested the idea.

But while working for the club as an agent, he “started to fall in love” before wondering “why not” and buying the club to save them from insolvency.

City Football Group then invested in the club in 2017 with a 47 percent stake, but with Girona now competing in the same competition as the franchise’s star team, that relationship must now change.

Guardiola said: “City were investing in clubs and we spoke with them and told them they could have part of the club in a location they know.

“In the beginning we could help train the players and then one day they could play for Man City or be sold, like Pedro Porro who left for Sporting. It was about having a springboard club…

“Now we are completely separated, but we have always been quite independent.

“We have to build a very good team. We have to see the money and how it is invested – some of it is in the team, in the new stadium, in the training ground, in the academy.

“At the end of the day, we have to forget what people say outside of this. We have to implement our plan and we have to keep going.”

He added that the long-term goal was to be in La Liga for the next 15 years, with participation in the Champions League despite their struggles this season being a huge bonus.

Despite the support of the City Football Group, Girona have been frugal and invested their money wisely, with two of the team’s current stars being former players. Manchester United stars Daley Blind And Donny van de Beek.

About the duo, Guardiola said: “We have a coach and we play in a way that does not suit everyone, but some people.

“That means Daley Blind, for example, is a perfect player for us and we are a perfect platform for him.

“Van de Beek is a bit like that. He went to United and was unlucky, he lost momentum with different coaches and different players and got injured.

“He was part of teams that struggled to play attacking football and he needs that type of football.

“Now we are in a position where our football suits him very well, the Spanish championship suits him very well, knowing that he needed time.

“He spent two, three years without really playing and every day we see that he is improving.”

4