DBasia.news – Pep Guardiola is one of the greatest coaches in the world. With a distinctive style of play, Guardiola has now collected 29 trophies in eleven years as a coach. The 2009 Copa del Rey was the beginning of everything.
Located at the Mestalla Stadium, May 13, 2009, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona faced Athletic Bilbao. The 107th edition of the Copa del Rey final began with a controversy when Barcelona and Bilbao fans cheered for the Spanish national anthem. As is known both clubs come from two regions who are trying to break away from Spain. Barcelona from Catalonia, while Bilbao from Basque.
Although Guardiola only coached for the first season, Barcelona came as a favorite. While Bilbao determined to repeat their achievements 25 years earlier when defeating Barcelona in the final of a similar event.
Bilbao fans saw their dreams come true when witnessing Gaizka Toquero’s header at the far post after receiving Francisco Yeste’s corner kick which was unreachable by Barca goalkeeper, Jose Pinto after just eight minutes.
However, the excitement of Bilbao fans was only for a moment as Barcelona was able to score four goals through Yaya Toure in the 32nd minute, Lionel Messi (55), Bojan Krkic 57, and Xavi Hernandez 64.
Barcelona finally won their 25th Copa del Rey title with a 4-1 victory. This is also the first Copa del Rey of Barca after always failing in the previous eleven years.
For Guardiola, the Copa del Rey is just warming up. There are still two more trophies to be pursued, LaLiga and the Champions League. “We are fortunate to have high-quality players who can run any coach’s ideas,” Guardiola said at the time.
“We’ve got the first trophy and now it’s time for the second. Then we hope to prepare for the Champions League final.”
As recorded in the history books, Guardiola successfully brought Barcelona to win the treble in its inaugural season.
Special relationship with Bilbao
After three years, Guardiola and Barcelona returned to face Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final. Similar to 2009, Barcelona returned as champions, this time passing the score 3-0.
For Guardiola this victory is his last offer as coach of Barcelona. Guardiola has decided to take a break from the field. Guardiola won the first and last trophy with Barcelona in the Copa del Rey event with the same opponent, Bilbao. All of this seemed to perfect his travel circle in the Blaugrana.
The story of Guardiola, Copa del Rey, and Athletic Bilbao is indeed very interesting. For some reason, Bilbao became part of the coach’s career. Incidentally or not, Guardiola is known as an admirer of the Basque club. Guardiola always felt he had a special relationship with Athletic Bilbao.
Guardiola’s admiration for Athletic Bilbao had emerged early in his career as a player. When he began his work in Barcelona, Guardiola joined Barca from Basque like Andoni Zubizarreta and Jose Mari Bakero. In addition, many Basque players were stars at LaLiga at the time such as Julen Guerrero, Joseba Etxeberria, and Ismael Urzaiz, who became team mates on the Spanish national team.
In the Spanish national team, besides joining the players, Guardiola was coached by Javier Clemente, who successfully brought Bilbao into the LaLiga championship for two consecutive seasons, 1983 and 1984. Bilbao’s achievements while maintaining the principle of only using players from Basque.
This principle is of interest to Guardiola considering he is a Barcelona-born player. “Athletic has a smaller market than Barcelona. They are an example,” Guardiola said in 2010.
Because of that Guardiola also “imitates” Bilbao who uses their own players. Indeed, in contrast to Bilbao, the origin of Barcelona players is not merely from Catalonia. They have Lionel Messi from Argentina, Andres Iniesta from Albacete, or Pedro from Tenerife. However, Guardiola takes a similar philosophy, making the players themselves as the backbone.
“Athletic is a mystical, historic club. San Mames makes you fall in love. The stadium, supporters and how they play,” Guardiola said.
Guardiola’s relationship with Bilbao was even more special when Marcelo Bielsa arrived. It is no longer a secret that Guardiola admires the figure of the coach nicknamed El Loco.
Bielsa and Guardiola meet Bilbao host Barca at San Mames. Outside the field, they had met before. After retiring, Guardiola traveled to Argentina to speak with several famous coaches, including Cesar Luis Menotti, Ricardo Lavolpe, and Bielsa.
Bielsa invited Guardiola to his home in Rosario. Both of them talked football for 11 hours. El Loco spoke, Guardiola listened.
With all these special relationships, it is not impossible that one day Guardiola could become an architect of Athletic Bilbao. As Guardiola once revealed in 2010.
“I am always open to listening to offers from Athletic. I will be thrilled. We will see if the offer will come.”