It was during the crisis between Leo and Barça that led to the player sending the burofax
Both the coach and the footballer were frustrated by the traumatic Lisbon final phase of the 2019/20 Champions League
Leo Messi offered Pep Guardiola to sign for Manchester City in the summer of 2020, when the crisis broke out between the Argentine and the FC Barcelona board chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu and which crystallized in the sending of a burofax by the Argentine striker requesting his departure from the Camp Nou.
This is how journalist Martí Perarnau explains it in his book ‘God save Pep’. A work in which, as is usual with him, the author combines deep knowledge with an agile narrative to chronicle Pep Guardiola’s seven years at the helm of Manchester City, as he previously reviewed his stages at Barça and in Bayern Munich in ‘Herr Pep and in ‘Pep Guardiola. Metamorphosis’.
The dream of a Pep – Leo reunion at Manchester City
In the chapter titled “I just want to break it”, the author places the action in August 2020. “A WhatsApp from Sergio Agüero has triggered alerts in the club: ‘Be careful, two things can happen. Leo has asked me how long he has Pep contract with City”.
Guardiola returned to Manchester after being defeated by Olympique Lyon in the 2019/20 Champions League during the final phase played in Lisbon in which Barça conceded the painful 2-8 against Bayern Munich a few days before, on August 14. All of this, within the framework of a world conditioned by the Covid 19 pandemic and the associated restrictions.
It was then that Pep reread the message, although he did not know how to gauge its reach when he landed at Barcelona’s El Prat airport and received another message himself: “Hello Pep, how are you?” It is from Leo Messi himself, who, hurt by the humiliation of Lisbon, “he has made the decision. He is leaving. And he wants to know if he can reunite with his teacher. He has taken the initiative.”
Martí Perarnau explains that a meeting took place the next day at Guardiola’s home in Barcelona, the second since the coach had left Barça in 2012. And that is when the Argentine conveyed his desire to play under him again. “Mister, I just want to break it,” Leo says.
Messi conveys to the Manchester City coach his differences with the Barça directors and especially with the then president Josep Maria Bartomeu, by whom he feels “deceived and betrayed.” “It rains a lot in Manchester,” Pep replied, before chatting for hours about the matter.
Guardiola was willing to extend his contract with City if the operation was carried out which should be commanded by Ferran Soriano, executive director of the Manchester club, and Jorge Messi, father and representative of the footballer. The main obstacle is that he has one year left on his contract with Barça, protected by a clause of 750 million euros.
The key conversation between Messi and Guardiola
The end of the story is well known, but Martí Perarnau’s book leaves this brief, but succulent dialogue to close the chapter:
-In Manchester we train very hard…
-I will train hard, I’m not worried.
-And I continued making long tactical talks. Maybe you’ll get bored…
-I’ll hold on. I will put up with everything you do.
-Leo, we have grown older. Maybe we can’t stand each other anymore.
-Pep, I just want to break it.