THROWBACKTHISDAY, JAN 18; Is Pep Guardiola's Birthday

               

Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football coach and former player who is the current manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich.

Guardiola played as a defensive midfielder and spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" that won the club's first European Cup in 1992, and four successive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. He later captained the team from 1997 to 2001. He then played for Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar, and Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico while training to be a manager. While playing in Italy, he served a four-month ban for a positive drug test, although he was cleared of wrongdoing twice on appeal in 2009 before the Courts of Justice of the Italian Football Federation and the Federal Anti-Doping Courts of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).Guardiola was capped 47 times for Spain, winning the Olympic Gold Medal in 1992, and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He also played friendly matches for Catalonia. A deep-lying playmaker, he was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision of the game, ball control, technical ability, passing range, and calm composure.

As a manager, Guardiola has won 14 trophies in the first four years of his managing career. He is one of the most successful and is considered to be one of the best managers in the world.

After retiring as a player, Guardiola became coach of Barcelona B, and in 2008 he succeeded Frank Rijkaard as the first team manager. In his first season as manager, Guardiola guided Barcelona to a treble, winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. In doing so, Guardiola became the youngest manager to win the Champions League. The following season, Guardiola led Barcelona to win the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup, bringing his tally to the maximum of six trophies out of six competitions in one year, thus achieving the sextuple. In 2011, Guardiola was awarded the Catalan Parliament's Gold Medal, their highest honour. That same year, Guardiola was also named the FIFA World Coach of the Year. On 30 June 2012, Guardiola announced his departure from Barcelona, after winning 14 trophies in just four years in charge of the club.

After a sabbatical period, Bayern Munich announced on 16 January 2013 that Guardiola would join the club as manager for the 2013–14 season following the retirement of Jupp Heynckes. In his first season at the club, Guardiola won the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 45 years and TBT Blog celebrate with him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEP GUARDIOLA