After 2009 and 2011, the king finally regains his crown!

At 52, the Spanish coach closes a long parenthesis of disillusionment on the European scene, an anomaly for the one who has piled up eleven national titles in fourteen league seasons with Barcelona, Bayern and the Citizens.

So, yes, the quest for a new C1 had become for him a "dream" and an "obsession" at the same time. "To achieve things, you always have to have the right proportion of obsession, desire. Obsession is a positive word," he said on the eve of the final in Istanbul.

The Catalan, considered one of the best coaches of his generation, has long broken his teeth on the Cup with big ears, enough to fuel criticism in England, a country that likes to rebuff him at the slightest misstep.

His tactical choices were singled out after his three consecutive failures with Bayern in the final four, and then the five years it took him to spend the quarters with City. The final lost in 2021 to Chelsea also darkened the picture.

"Another match"

In Istanbul, the professor made a clean sweep of the past. "I'd like to tell you the lessons, but I can't. It's another game, two years later, with different players."

Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland in Istanbul on January 10, 2023 © FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Against the Blues, "people say my choices were bad". Against Inter Milan, "it will be the same, I have a plan, and if we win it will be good," he joked.

If he has sometimes "gamberged" in C1, his ability to innovate, surprise, adapt is undoubtedly one of the secrets of his incredible longevity at the highest level.

True or false modesty, he replied Friday that the key to success was more prosaic: "Having good players. Having Messi in the past, and now Haaland. And I'm not kidding, it's the truth," he told a news conference.

Since his induction at City in 2016, his Sky Blues have shown very different faces: the team with the fire-follets Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling on the wings and the "killer" Sergio Agüero in the axis, then the one with Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, even Ilkay Gündogan in "false nine", when the injuries of Agüero and the failure of the recruitment of Harry Kane, in the summer of 2021, had left him without a centre-forward.

And if Erling Haaland, who filled this gap last summer, was a player at odds with the aesthetics sought, the Norwegian's 52 goals in his first season are further proof of the Catalan's unique "football IQ".

Power of conviction

"Pep makes you understand that football is easier than you think," Fernandinho, a former iconic Citizens captain, recently explained in an interview with Alan Shearer for The Atheltic.

"He has this power to convince you, to show you, to show you daily in his training sessions, during talks and especially during matches, that everything he tells you will happen," continued the Brazilian, who became better "technically, tactically, physically" under his command.

The technician has been able to develop his training without ever denying his principles. And City have consistently been the team with the highest ball possession, the ones with the fewest long passes, the fewest shots and have always been, or by any means, the best attack as well as the best defence.

Pep Guardiola in Istanbul on January 10, 2023 © OZAN KOSE / AFP

"Basically, nothing" has changed over the years, Guardiola even said last week.

"I don't remember a game where I didn't tell my players not to press when the opponent has the ball, and I don't remember a day when we didn't try to build our actions as best we could. The fundamentals have always been rigorously the same from day one to today," he insisted.

By offering the first Champions League in its history to City, he has just won twelve major trophies in seven seasons at Manchester.

© 2023 AFP