Guardiola’s students follow in his footsteps. Xavi, Arteta and Kompany shine!

Vincent Kompany played his first Premier League training match with his team Burnley against Manchester City last Friday, in front of his mentor Pep Guardiola, but the teacher managed to beat his student 3-0.

Kompany is among the many coaches of Guardiola’s students who have succeeded in the role of coach and followed in the footsteps of their teacher.

Kompany led Burnley to return to the English Premier League again and made a clear mark on him, and he faced the Belgian coach Guardiola for the second time in his career as a coach.

Guardiola inspired a number of his former players to move to training after their retirement, and we monitor for you in “Yalla Shoot” the following report, the most prominent former Guardiola students who have proven their great success as coaches as follows:

Mikel Arteta: The assistant who became a rival
Mikel Arteta, the current Arsenal coach, never played under Guardiola or alongside him, but the former Barcelona coach felt that he was interested in training and appointed him as one of his three assistants when he took over Manchester City in 2016, which made him have a lot of experience despite his young age.

Many believed that Guardiola was grooming Arteta to make him his successor at City, but his assistant could not resist the offer to take over at Arsenal and immediately agreed and parted ways with Guardiola.

Arteta managed to turn Arsenal from his poor condition in the past years to his return to compete for the English Premier League title.

Although Arsenal came close to winning the English Premier League championship last season, the teacher outperformed his student in the end, and Manchester City retained his title.

Vincent Kompany: Guardiola’s successor at Manchester City
Kompany spent 11 years with Manchester City, helping them beat arch-rivals Manchester United and make City the top team in the competition and the country.

Kompany lifted four Premier League titles as captain of Manchester City as well as winning the FA Cup.

After his retirement, Kompany did not care about Manchester City since he became coach of Burnley, and his focus was on leading the team to promotion to the English Premier League, and he succeeded in achieving this before the end of the tournament with seven games, a record that has not been achieved since 2004.

“Sooner or later his destiny is to become a star-written Manchester City coach,” Guardiola said last season before facing Burnley in the FA Cup about Kompany.

Xavi: He brought Barcelona back to glory
Xavi Hernandez was Guardiola’s eyes and ears on the pitch during his four years in charge of Barcelona and it was long expected that Xavi would follow in Guardiola’s footsteps in coaching the Catalans.

After Xavi spent the rest of his football career in Qatar, he moved to training the Qatari Al-Sadd team, before finally taking over Barcelona in 2021 after the dismissal of Ronald Koeman.

The time when Xavi returned to Barcelona was not ideal and witnessed four disappointing exits from the Champions League, but in his first full season he led Barcelona to crowning the La Liga title after an absence of four years, by 10 points over Real Madrid, and Barcelona also beat Real Madrid. Spanish Super Cup title.

The current Barcelona team style differs somewhat from the positional play that Guardiola applied with the team.

Erik ten Hag: “Little Pip” who became a domestic enemy
When Guardiola and Erik ten Hag were coaching Bayern Munich and engaged in tactical talks, no one imagined that after a while they would be enemies in the English Premier League.

Ten Hag was a promising young coach in 2013 who led his team to promotion to the Eredivisie but decided to leave the Eredivisie to work in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.

Ten Hag spent two years as Guardiola’s assistant and Steve McClaren revealed that the Dutchman had adopted Catalan’s philosophy and that the Bayern staff referred to him as “little Pep”.

And when Ajax was winning the Champions League in 2019 under Ten Hag, Guardiola said: “He’s a top-class coach and a squad to watch.”

In the year 2022, Manchester United decided to appoint Ten Hag as coach of the team, and the Dutchman made noticeable changes in the performance of the Red Devils and restored the team to compete with the adults, and although Guardiola outperformed his student in the FA Cup final last season, this season is expected to witness a strong challenge after strengthening Manchester. United with strong deals.

Enzo Maresca: He became the coach of Leicester City
Enzo Maresca moved into coaching after a long career as a midfielder, serving as assistant to Jorge Sampaoli at Sevilla, later becoming manager of Manchester City’s reserves and after a failed spell at Parma he returned to Manchester City last year as assistant to Guardiola.

And he appears to have made a real impact as he helped City become the only second team in the history of English football to win three trophies in one season.

Following his success with City, Maresca was appointed manager of Leicester City and he is off to a good start in his quest to lead the Foxes back into the Premier League, winning the opening game of the season against Coventry City and beating Burton Albion in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

Javier Mascherano begins his journey
Guardiola has always admired Javier Mascherano’s ability to read matches, which explains why he signed with Barcelona not to play in midfield but as a center back, a position the Argentine had not played in before.

Like Xavi, Mascherano did not hide his desire to move into coaching when he finished his career, and in 2020, while returning with Estudiantes to his homeland, he was appointed coach of the Argentina U-20 national team.

Mascherano led his team to the FIFA U-20 World Cup on home soil earlier this year but the Albiceleste were knocked out in the last 16 by Nigeria.

Xabi Alonso: Following in the footsteps of Guardiola in the Bundesliga
Guardiola and Xabi Alonso were bitter enemies when they were players, so it was surprising to see Guardiola sign Alonso at Bayern Munich in 2014.

Alonso continued with Guardiola in Bayern Munich for two years, then worked with Rafa Benitez, Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, and with coaches like them, it was not surprising that Alonso decided to go into training.

Alonso started with Real Sociedad’s reserve team and then returned to Germany last October to take charge of coaching Bayer Leverkusen and did an excellent job in his first seven months in charge.

Alonso led Leverkusen to sixth place in the Bundesliga after a disastrous start to the season under Gerardo Swann, and also led them to the semi-finals of the Europa League.

He was rewarded with a new contract but remains one of the frontrunners to replace Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid when the Italian leaves to coach Brazil in the summer of 2024.

Thierry Henry: Not as good a coach as he was as a player
Thierry Henry was not the most important player for Guardiola in Barcelona, ​​but he played an important role in Barcelona winning the Spanish League title and winning the Champions League in 2009.

Henry has struggled to find great success on his own as a coach. After working as an assistant to Roberto Martinez with the Belgium national team in the 2018 World Cup, Henry got his first chance as a senior coach with Monaco.

Henry did not perform well with Monaco, and made them fall in the French League standings after they were champions before he came to be dismissed from his position less than 100 days after his appointment.

The Arsenal legend coached in America but also struggled, returning to work alongside Martinez with Belgium at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup and now without a job after Martinez was named Portugal coach.