A very special football coach: Pep Guardiola
Image: EPA
Football coach Pep Guardiola wants to take the game away from chance. And if you draw an interim balance, he has come closer to this goal than anyone who has tried before him.
Mometimes, when Philipp Lahm came out of the team dressing room on Säbener Straße in the summer months of 2013 and said good morning to his new coach, he didn’t say anything back. When Lahm, the FC Bayern captain, had walked several meters further and was already surprised, the new coach usually turned around and replied. It wasn’t long before Lahm was no longer surprised because he now knew: That’s the way it is with Pep Guardiola, this man whose thoughts are always so lost in the game that he sometimes even forgets to say good morning .
It’s midday in Munich when Lahm, 39 years old, picks up his cell phone and tells this story. He actually has to be on his cell phone all the time since he became the tournament director of the Euro 2024. This afternoon, for once, he didn’t have to. He does it voluntarily – because it is still an affair of the heart for him to talk about the football coach, who fascinated him more than anyone else.