Josep “Pep” Guardiola (b. 18 January 1971), the Catalan football manager and former player, is one of the most consequential coaches of modern football. His career, stretching from his formative years under Johan Cruyff at FC Barcelona to his managerial dominance at Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City, has produced a body of work of such aesthetic coherence and tactical sophistication that it is often described in near-religious terms by admirers. Widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time, he holds the record for the highest number of consecutive victories in three different top European leagues. From his earliest days as a player, Guardiola was marked not by innate genius of touch but by a burning intensity of will and control. Cruyff, who made him the pivot of Barcelona’s “Dream Team,” saw in him a player of rare intelligence and command rather than flair: “He reads the game better than anyone else on the pitch” (Cruyff 1999, p. 84). Guardiola’...
An international resource on Socionics, a theory of personality type.