Pere Guardiola interview: You never know, Pep could coach Girona one day
Pere Guardiola is president of the board at Girona, a former Nike exec and football agent
Maybe, one day, Pere Guardiola will be his big brother’s boss. “Yes, I always say ‘the day when you get bored, you can come and coach Girona!’” Guardiola says, laughing.
His brother, of course, is Pep Guardiola. And Pere – pronounced Pera – is the president of the board of Girona, the Catalan club who have been transformed in recent years and now face Liverpool in the Champions League.
The 48-year-old, five years Pep’s junior, is joking. But Girona are an attractive proposition and already have a much-coveted coach in Míchel. They have been something of a fairy tale, finishing third in La Liga last season ahead of Atlético Madrid and just four points behind Barcelona in what was only their second season back in the top division. With a team costing just £29 million, their target had been survival.
“In life, you never know but I don’t think it’s going to happen!” Pere says of employing Pep. “But Girona is a very good place for football. The weather is great. The region is good. The club itself has a pressure because we live 24-hour football, but the environment and the history there is not that pressure like with big clubs.
“But we are starting to have history and we are starting to put pressure because we know the level we want to reach and if we are not doing that we need to question ourselves. That means this environment is very nice for the lovers of football and there is always a chance for anyone to one day come to Girona and play for Girona or coach Girona. Because the environment is calm.”
Donny van de Beek's first LALIGA goal 🇳🇱
The Girona midfielder pulls one back for his side with the help of a deflection 🙌 pic.twitter.com/YPD8pQD8hH
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 1, 2024
Unsurprisingly, the brothers, who grew up in Santpedor, a small town between Girona and Barcelona, have a shared philosophy. As a player, Pere never reached the heights of Pep. He was a No10 in the lower leagues, combining a career with Nike before retiring early. But he is equally passionate about the game and how it should be played.
“OK, in the end, this is a bit Barca philosophy, of Cruyff,” he says of Girona. “Things don’t happen because they just happen. Things don’t just go the way you think because you have better skills. Things happen because there is a kind of pattern – knowing that if you have a player better than the opponent then you will have more chances. We should never forget it is about the players.
“I grew up eating this every day. The coach and sporting director and structure of the club is very important but we need good players. That doesn’t mean expensive players, but players who can fit in. And we help them to be better.
“Because if we don’t play good football it is like throwing a coin in the air. One day you can win; one day you can lose but most of the time you are going to struggle. Trying to play good football, to control all the departments on the pitch, is going to bring you closer to the win.”
Given the passionate way he talks, it is worth asking if Pere ever thought about going into coaching rather than business and, also, football agency – something he has scaled back but still helps his brother with.
“I was good at getting people together, making things happen, getting them to agree,” Guardiola explains. “I realised when I was growing up that I could do this. I was good at getting the right side to agree with the left side and I enjoyed it and did OK.
“I always like to be in the kitchen, where everything is cooked: ‘How are we going to do this? Why are we going to do this? Which way? OK, we need this money. So, how are we going to raise this money? And then when we get it, who are we going to get to run it?’
“I was with Nike for 10, 12 years and started by getting young players to wear Nike boots. I signed Andrés Iniesta when he was 14, I signed Fernando Torres when he was 14. I grew up with them and ended up managing Ronaldo Nazário’s and Ronaldinho’s careers. One was in Madrid and the other was in Barcelona. Every week, it was Monday, Tuesday in Madrid, Wednesday, Thursday in Barcelona, because I was managing both of them. All of this experience helped me. Then I started my own company as an agent and it widened my knowledge of business, football and managing players. When I got to Girona I had scope that definitely helped me to know what’s going on, what agents are thinking, what players are thinking. Now this is one of the things I have done that I like the most.”
Pere Guardiola interview: You never know, Pep could coach Girona one day
Pep Guardiola (left) sits next to his son Marcus as he listens to his brother Pere
Guardiola’s involvement with Girona started in 2015 when they were in danger of going out of business. “I was not looking for a club at all. At that time, I was working with football players as an agent and then the sports director [Quique Cárcel], who is a friend and someone I advised, came and said ‘if some day you think about investing in a club, then Girona would be good’.
“Girona had never really worked out. Always problems. Second division, third division and different groups fighting. It was big in terms of history, in terms of the region, in terms of potential but no one at the time could really see that. There was a momentum that needed to be fixed.
“I started falling in love. Rather than being on one side of the industry, here was a chance to be on the other side and run a club in a good way. It clicked and I started to think ‘why not do this?’”
So, Guardiola bought Girona, who only entered the second division in 2008 after a 49-year absence from professional football, helping them out of insolvency.
One issue that must be discussed is the involvement of City Football Group, which invested in Girona in 2017 and has held a 47 per cent stake – they are one of 12 clubs under its umbrella.
“City were investing in clubs and we spoke with them and said they could have part of the club in a place where they know,” Guardiola explains, with Girona initially benefiting from players being loaned and the sharing of information.
“In the beginning, we could help form the players and then one day they could play for Man City or be sold, like Pedro Porro who went to Sporting. It was to have a stepping-stone club.”
That relationship has had to change, at least until June 30 2025, with CFG’s shareholding placed in an independent blind trust to comply with Uefa’s regulations after Girona qualified for the Champions League.
“Now we are completely separate, but we were always quite independent,” Guardiola says before addressing the accusation that the CFG investment was only ever made in the first place because of his brother.
“In football and in life, in business, they are always going to gossip and say things. The reality is the reality. We became shareholders. Four years ago, I sold part of my stake to Marcelo Claure [a Bolivian-American entrepreneur and the president of Club Bolivar, another CFG partner; Pere still holds 16 per cent].
“We need to generate a very good squad. We need to see the money and how it is invested – part of it is in the squad, in the new stadium, in the training ground, in the academy. In the end, we need to forget what people say outside of this. We need to do our plan and we need to keep going.”
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Girona have not simply thrown money at it. Their squad is a mix of experienced older players such as former Manchester United pair Daley Blind and Donny van de Beek, and emerging young talents including Miguel Gutiérrez, 23, and Arnau Martínez, 21. It is a shrewdly assembled, previously undervalued group of players.
Girona operate with one of the five lowest revenues and wage bills in La Liga. Their success over the past two years has now improved their finances and ability to spend.
“We have a coach and we play in a way that not everyone fits but some people can fit. That means that Daley Blind, for example, is a perfect player for us and we are a perfect platform for him. Van de Beek is a bit like this. He went to United and was unlucky, losing momentum with different coaches and different players and got injured. He was in teams that were struggling to play attacking football and he needs that type of football. Now we are in a position that our football fits him very well, the Spanish league fits him very well, knowing that he needed time. He had two, three years without really playing and every day now you can see he is improving.”
Guardiola’s plan for Girona is clear: stabilise the club and have “three main pillars” – a good first-team squad, better infrastructure including a new stadium, and bring back the youth academy, which he has done.
“The challenge is to be in La Liga for the next 15 years. That has to be the goal,” he says. “If once in a while we are Champions League, then ‘bingo’.”
Guardiola acknowledges they have struggled in the Champions League so far, being in 30th place with three points. But they are where they want to be. Liverpool are coming to their 9,600-seat Montilivi home and Guardiola wants them to embrace it.
“It will be difficult against Liverpool, AC Milan and Arsenal but we don’t need to be afraid to play our football against them, and then let’s see what happens.”
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