The Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola partnership took FC Barcelona to unprecedented heights. Under the Catalan manager, La Pulga scored 211 goals and 94 assists in 219 games. Having won multiple Ballon d’Ors under Guardiola, Messi was at his sporting best under the current Manchester City manager. Yet unknown to many is the great camaraderie between the duo off the pitch. La Pulga had recently revealed that Guardiola was one of the few managers under whom he was ‘happy.’ Now, the Argentine has opened up on how the Spaniard went beyond his way to ensure his happiness.
Scheduled at the start of the 2008 season was the Olympic games. Pep Guardiola had just walked in as the new manager after FC Barcelona finished 3rd in the 2007/08 season. Hence, there was pressure on the club to perform and the minimum expectation was Champions League qualification. Reliving the moments, Lionel Messi said in a recent interview, “We had to get into the Champions League. I had a bit of a long face… I wanted to go and play in the Olympic Games.”
Fortunately for Lionel Messi, being the intelligent man that he is, Pep Guardiola noticed what was going on. Messi revealed, “He grabbed me, we had a talk and he told me: ‘Stay calm, we are going to enter the Champions League. You go, I’m going to leave you there, win the Olympic Games and then come back because we’re going to have a long year.”
Despite the immense pressure on him, Pep Guardiola released his best player for the Olympic games. Lionel Messi didn’t disappoint his manager as Argentina secured gold at the Olympic games. For a long time, this was La Pulga’s only notable achievement with the national team. Hence it’s easy to see why the playmaker deeply admires his former manager. But according to Messi having a genius like Pep Guardiola has its downsides as well.
Lionel Messi reveals how Pep Guardiola ‘harmed’ soccer
Previously, Lionel Messi had said, “Guardiola did a lot of harm to football. It seemed so simple and easy that everyone wanted to copy him. I met a lot of Guardiolas around.” According to the Argentine maestro, this was the moment that he realized Pep Guardiola was ‘special’. His preparation for games, communication, and tactics were all lauded by the Argentine star.
The respect is mutual from the Spaniard’s end as well. In 2023, Guardiola’s player Erling Haaland was in the running for the Ballon d’Or alongside Lionel Messi. Normal managers would have backed their own player, but not Guardiola. In fact, the Spaniard added that there should have been 2 Ballon d’Ors for the duo. It seems that even after a decade, the bond between the duo remains strong.