Every Trophy Pep Guardiola Has Won with Manchester City

There is no doubt that Pep Guardiola as a manager is one of the greatest of all time. With the success of three of the most successful and biggest teams in world football attributed to him, Guardiola has delivered time and again. In short, Pep Guardiola is one of the true elites, having led his teams to every triumph imaginable. 

Having won more trophies than all but one manager in world football, Guardiola has established his reign of dominance in Spain, Germany, and now in England. With a fruitful stint as a player, earning a place in Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff’s all-time XI, Guardiola followed his calling and made the jump over to coaching. Thus began a legendary run of triumphs and trophies galore that is yet to die down.  

When all is said and done, Pep Guardiola as a manager, could well go down as perhaps the best of all time, that is if he wishes to do so. Seeing that he is only 53 years old at the time of writing, there is plenty of time for him to go on and overtake legendry Sir Alex Ferguson’s spot as the next King of the Hill. Far and away from the rest of his peers for the most part, there is a lot to Guardiola’s journey that some may not know. 

That said, let’s take a deeper dive into Pep Guardiola’s time at Manchester City and gloss over his many incredible triumphs over the years.

How did Pep Guardiola’s journey at Manchester City start?

Following a greatly successful stint at FC Barcelona, Pep Guardiola decided to take a sabbatical. During the run that saw him be heralded as the best manager in the club’s history, the Spaniard had started to burn out and at the end of the  2011–12 season revealed that he would be stepping down from his position. Naturally, it was a big ordeal considering his reputation at the time, but his decision to take some time away, after four arduous and successful years was very understandable. 

After a year away from the sport, Guardiola revealed that he was ready to once again get into management and Bayern Munich ended up being the one to secure his services. For the most part, owing to Pep Guardiola’s lofty standards as a manager, his time with the Bavarian giants was a bit of a mixed bag, all things considered. While the side experienced some great highs in the league and in domestic competitions, they seemed to lose their way when push came to shove in the European competitions.

Thus, following three consecutive seasons of the same at the Bundesliga club, Guardiola revealed that he would be leaving the club, seeing that his contract had expired. Realizing that something needed to change in order for the club to achieve European success and break through the barriers, the club decided to part ways and enlist Carlo Ancelotti as Guardiola’s replacement in 2016. Looking back, Guardiola’s inability to get past the semi-final stage in the Champions League, despite having a dominant side was likely the cause of the split. 

During his time as manager of Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola amassed a record of 82 wins, eleven draws, and nine losses in the Bundesliga and had a record of 23 wins, five draws, and eight losses in the UEFA Champions League. That said, it was now time for him to take his talents and aid a newly emerging powerhouse in the Premier League, the blue side of Manchester, Manchester City. Signed to a three-year deal in 2016, this would mark Guardiola’s most daunting yet rewarding task yet. 

Also Read: List of Longest serving Premier League Managers in History

List of Pep Guardiola’s triumphs at Manchester City

For the most part, winning had become a bit of a recurring habit for Pep Guardiola as a manager and the teams he managed were almost certain to always end the year with silverware to their names. However, the 2016-2017 season, Guardiola’s first year at Manchester City was anything but a success. In what sticks out like a sore thumb in his illustrious resume, Guardiola ended the year without a single trophy for the first time in his managerial career. 

An anomaly of the highest order to say the least, and what followed it will long live in the history books as one of the most dominant runs in club football and likely what sealed Pep Guardiola’s legacy as one of the best managers of all time in the history of football. After a summer of tremendous rebuilding funded by the City hierarchy, Pep reinforced the back line with key additions while disposing of the old core that had seen significant success in their time. 

As such, Guardiola set about the season with an unrelenting City side that would lose only two games all season on their way to an unbelievable league-record 100-point tally. Having secured the EFL Cup earlier in the season, City pulled clear from the rest of the league with a 19-point lead. A tremendous achievement by any imagination, Pep was awarded with a new contract which would see him continue with the Cityzens for three more seasons. That said, it became quite clear that the rest of the league was in for a difficult time with what the Spaniard was looking to cook up.

In his third season with Manchester City, manager Pep Guardiola did even better, securing the club’s first domestic treble in English football overall by securing the EFL Cup, the Premier League, and the FA Cup. Despite all his successes, the ghost of past European competitions once again haunted the Spanish manager as his side failed to move past the quarter-finals, falling to Tottenham Hotspur in a controversial tie. As a result, Guardiola looked to make more signings in the summer of 2019, including the club-record signing of Rodri from Atletico Madrid for a fee of £62.8 million. 

Now with the squad valuation of over £1 billion, a football world record, there was a lot of emphasis on Pep Guardiola to deliver European success for the club. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the disruptive season that followed saw the City struggle and fall behind an ever-resilient Liverpool side. Once again, the club was unable to change their fortunes, suffering a third quarter-final exit. With a fresh start in 2020-2021, the team hit the ground running, going on a dominant run to win the league but falling to Chelsea in the Champions League final. 

Successive League victories continued in the next couple of years as well. That said, the fans again waited with bated breath as the 2023 Champions League Final came around. Finally, manager Pep Guardiola broke his deadlock and delivered a continental treble, beating Inter Milan 1-0, with star man Rodri securing the tie with an all-important strike. Then, in 2024, Guardiola’s unrelenting City side battled on till the last day to secure the Premier League for a fourth consecutive season.

Pep Guardiola’s historic moments and record-breaking achievements at Manchester City

By now it’s safe to say that Pep Guardiola has done an exemplary job at Manchester City and how he has elevated them to a level where they have been pound-for-pound the best team in the world for a free years now. Whilst their European successes have only just started to come about, what they have already achieved is quite significant on its own. That said if the Manchester City hierarchy deems it so, the Spaniard could yet continue with the club and win many more trophies in the coming years. 

During his time at Manchester City, Pep has managed to break many records and most of them have been for the right reasons. That said, he has also broken the bank with some of their transfers, notably the aforementioned signing of Rodri and then winger Jack Grealish for £100m in 2021. That said, he has also overseen the Cityzens becoming the first English side to complete the domestic treble, on his way to becoming the manager with the most wins in Manchester City history. Not only that Guardiola has broken the record for the longest winning run in Spain, Germany, and England with his respective sides. 

Notably, with a managerial run of nearly 1000 games in charge, Guardiola has recorded a win percentage of 72.45% which is the highest of all current active managers in the top leagues, and 73.6% in the Premier League, which is the highest among those with more than 100 games in charge. Additionally, during his 16-year tenure as a manager, Pep Guardiola has won more trophies than any other manager in world football. In the 17 finals that he has managed as Manchester City manager, Guardiola has only lost on 3 occasions. Thus, in every metric and quantifiable way possible, the Spaniard has shown exactly why he is the best manager in world football today and on his way to being one of the best of all time.

Also Read: Top 10 Best Football Managers in the World 2024

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