A coach who never stopped teaching. It sounds crazy to say this, but you made greatness feel normal. Even after hat-tricks, wins and trophies, there was always another lesson, another challenge and another level to reach. That mentality changed this club forever and changed me too. The honour of a lifetime to work with the best. Thank you for everything, boss 🙏🏻 🩵
Before I joined the club, Pep was already an inspiration for me. To become his player and after 9 years end up being the one with most games played under him is truly an honour. He arrived at Man City, and the Premier League couldn’t be dominated playing his way… Well, they were wrong. Not only he dominated, he changed the game in England as he did in other countries before. The hunger and ambition to want more and more even after winning and winning again was a big inspiration. For me personally, he was and will always be my father of football. A lot of the things that many managers in the past thought were weaknesses of my game, he saw it as strengths and understood me from day one. On a personal level, the kindness, trust and respect that we had for each other makes me the proudest and goes beyond football. I couldn’t be more grateful for what he did for me and my family. Thank you for all the memories and experiences to the greatest manager ever Pep Guardiola! 😄
Pep Guardiola:
"Só mais uma coisa antes de você ir para casa tomar umas cervejas ou um vinho: se nos próximos anos você me encontrar nas ruas aqui, na Europa, nos Estados Unidos ou em qualquer outro lugar, e você for torcedor do City, venha me dar um abraço. Eu vou precisar disso" 🥹
"I love you so much" 🩵
you changed my life Pep. you made me fall in love with this game in ways i never thought possible. you put my club on the map and kept us there. you made the whole world stop and pay attention to Manchester City Football Club, a club that for so long was the punchline of every joke, the afterthought in every conversation about English football’s elite.
i grew up watching you dismantle the greatest teams in the world with nothing but a whiteboard, an obsession and a vision that nobody else on this earth could see as clearly as you could. you made football feel like art. like poetry. like something worth dedicating your entire emotional existence to. you made the beautiful game feel genuinely, breathtakingly beautiful again.
i remember the early days. the nervousness of wondering whether this was real. whether this level of football was actually sustainable. whether a club like ours could truly compete with the giants of europe year after year. and then you answered every single question we ever had. not once. not twice. but relentlessly. season after season. trophy after trophy. record after record.
you gave us an identity. a way of playing the game that the entire world tried to copy and nobody, nobody, could ever truly replicate. you gave us a way of seeing football that we will carry for the rest of our lives long after the final whistle of your last game has faded into silence.
you gave a fanbase that spent decades being overlooked, underestimated and mocked a reason to walk with their chests out. a reason to believe that greatness wasn’t reserved for the historically privileged. that it could be built. that it could be earned. that it could belong to us.
i’m torn apart. genuinely shattered. i knew this day was coming and i still wasn’t remotely ready for it.
no amount of emotional preparation could ever make a goodbye like this feel okay. there is a version of me that will never fully accept that you are gone.
you gave me some of the greatest nights of my life. nights i will describe to my children and my grandchildren. nights where time stood still and football felt like it meant everything because in those moments, it did. the treble. the centurion season. the fourmidables, the comebacks. the masterclasses. the moments of tactical genius so extraordinary that even your opponents stood and applauded.
i don’t deserve this pain. none of us do. but i suppose that is the price you pay for loving something this deeply. for allowing a human being to walk into your life through the medium of football and change the way you see the world.
you are the greatest manager this sport has ever produced. not just in my opinion. in history. and history (unlike football’s fickle supporters) never forgets.
thank you Pep. from the very bottom of everything i am. from every early kick off. every late night. every moment of pure footballing joy you gave me that i will treasure until my last breath.
go well gaffer. go well. the game will never be the same without you. Manchester City Football Club will never be the same without you. 🩵🙏