Lionel Messi has named Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and current head coach of Spain national team Luis Enrique as the best coaches to ever worked with him at FC Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola coached at FC Barcelona between 2008 and 2012. At that point, he practically joined Barcelona as the club’s manager when Lionel Messi was still a youngster at the club. He helped to build the Argentina football icon to a world-class football superstar. The coach and Lionel Messi went on to win a series of individual and collective honors.
Some of the honors Pep Guardiola won with the help of Lionel Messi include three Spanish La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey titles, two Supercopa de España, two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Super Cup, and two FIFA Club World Cup.
After four successful years at FC Barcelona, Guardiola left the club and spent almost a year without a coaching job before he joined Bayern Munich.
Two years after, FC Barcelona signed Luis Enrique and he served as the football manager of the club for about three years. At that point, Messi was already the talisman of the club.
In his time at the club, Luis Enrique guided Lionel Messi and the rest of FC Barcelona players to win two La Liga titles, three Copa del Rey, one Supercopa de España, one UEFA Champions League title, one UEFA Super Cup, and one FIFA Club World Cup.
Since Enrique left FC Barcelona in 2017, the Spanish giants have not been able to get a football manager to keep the club at the peak they were before now. Between 2017 and now, FC Barcelona tried two coaches – Ernesto Valverde and Quique Setien who were unable to return them to the pinnacle of European football.
“Pep has something special, he makes you see things in a [different] way,” the six-time Ballon d’Or winner told La Sexta.
“How he prepared the matches, defensively, how to attack, he told you exactly where the game was, how you had to attack to win.
“I was lucky that I had a lot of time with Guardiola and Luis Enrique, the two best. Having them [for so long] made me grow a lot in football and in the tactical wisdom that they taught me.”
The new club’s manager Ronald Koeman has started attempting to recapture the glory days of the club since the beginning of the 2020-2021 season. So far this season, Koeman has only managed to lead FC Barcelona to the 5th spot on the league table with 24 points after 7 wins, three draws, and 4 defeats.
Lionel Messi All Goal..Crazy..644 goals with one club @FCBarcelona..Officially the most all time…GOAT..King Leo..#Messi #644
— Michey Miles 🦅❤️ (@michey__miles) December 24, 2020
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