MANCHESTER, England (AP):
It all started on September 2, 2007, in a Spanish fourth-tier game against Premia in front of around 2,000 fans.
Eighteen years later, Pep Guardiola will reach 1,000 games as a coach when he leads Manchester City into one of the biggest games in world football – against Liverpool in the English Premier League on Sunday.
“I never thought for one second about reaching 1,000 games,” the 54-year-old Guardiola said. “You just want to do a good job, play football the right way and see what happens.”
From his first job with Barcelona ‘B’ to trophy-laden stints with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City, Guardiola has changed the face of football in his remarkable coaching career.
He thanked all the great players – they include Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne – that have helped him along the way.
“After that,” Guardiola added on Friday, “it’s a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, passion, love. In that, nobody beats me.”
Here’s a by-the-numbers look at Guardiola as a coach – and even he is shocked by the statistics.
“The numbers are insane, I’m sorry to tell you,” Guardiola said with a smile. “When you have this milestone and you read what you have done … if I start again, I will not reach it.”
715 – Number of wins from Guardiola’s 999 games so far. It’s a win-rate of 71.57%.
40 – Number of trophies won by Guardiola in his coaching career, averaging one every 25 matches.
10 – Number of seasons at Man City, making it by far his longest tenure as a coach.
Nine – Most goals scored by Guardiola’s teams in a single match. It has happened twice – firstly Barcelona in a 9-0 thrashing of L’Hospitalet in the Copa del Rey in December 2011 and then Man City in a 9-0 beating of Burton Albion in the English League Cup in January 2019.
Three – Number of Champions League titles won by Guardiola (2009 and 2011 with Barcelona, 2023 with Man City). Only one coach, Carlo Ancelotti (five), has more.
One – Number of seasons taken off by Guardiola since 2007 – a sabbatical in 2012-13 during which he spent time in New York.
