Pep Guardiola names the biggest rival of his career – and it’s NOT Jose Mourinho

Pep Guardiola will reach a major managerial milestone this weekend when his Manchester City side face Liverpool in the Premier League.

The Catalan has only managed three clubs in his career but they are three of the biggest around in Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

His evolution of Johan Cruyff’s famous Tiki-Taka strategy has been credited with changing football over the last 20 years, with a major focus on passing, positioning and possession.

As a head coach, he won three La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues with Barcelona, three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and six Premier League titles and one Champions League with Manchester City.

Those, as well as numerous domestic cups with all three sides. He’s won the treble on two occasions – once with Barca and once with City.

This Sunday, he will take charge of his 1000th game as a professional football manager when Man City face Liverpool.

Over the years, he has faced the best of the best in terms of other managers.

His rivalry with Jose Mourinho, in particular, is the stuff of legend.

However, he believes that Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool represent the biggest rival of his career.

“If I were to choose one rival for this personal milestone, that I want to share with many people, they [Klopp’s Liverpool] would be the best.

“I’ve been longer than ever in this country. Of course Barcelona, the impact on my life as a ballboy, football player, manager, and so on is obvious and Bayern was an incredible step as well.

“But Liverpool, especially with Jurgen, have been the biggest rivals in this country and it could not be better, to be honest. So destiny decided that and it’s nice to live it.

“In terms of Jurgen’s side or Pep’s side, I think we respected each other. I had the feeling that Jurgen gave me a lot and I miss him.

“He gave me a lot in sense of, to beat that guy, how much I have to think and work and do it, to make it better.”

There’s no doubt that Guardiola and Klopp pushed each other to new heights as rivals in the Premier League.

For example…

In the 2018/19 season, Man City won the league with 98 points just one point ahead of Liverpool which was the third and fourth-highest points totals in English top-flight history.

In the 2019/20 season, Liverpool won the league with 99 points – the second-highest total in English top-flight history.

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