Guardiola not keen on national team job
Print Edition
PEP Guardiola says he is very happy with his job and has never thought about becoming manager of a national team.
The Spaniard showed up with midfielder Thomas Mueller at yesterday’s press conference ahead of Bayern Munich’s friendly against Inter Milan at Shanghai Stadium tomorrow.
“I’m very happy here (in Bayern)! To coach a national team, you have to be familiar with the nation’s football culture, style, etc. I think it’s better to have a manager from the same country to coach the national team,” the Bayern manager said.
Recent reports quoted Barcelona’s Dani Alves as saying that Guardiola wanted to coach Brazil at last summer’s World Cup finals. The fullback revealed that his former boss did not get the job because Brazilian football officials had reservations about appointing a foreign coach. Alves said Pep wanted to make Brazil a World Cup champion and had an entire strategy to realize it.
However, when asked yesterday whether he had ever come up with such an idea, Guardiola denied it, saying he had never thought about coaching any national team.
The Spaniard also rejected recent reports about selling Mario Goetze after the midfielder hinted that he was interested in a move to Italian Serie A champion Juventus. “Mario is a top player. He is a player in my team, and he will be there for the season which is about to begin. There has been no contact with other teams,” Guardiola said.
The Bundesliga champion for the last three seasons arrived in Shanghai a day after its 4-1 friendly win over Spain’s Valencia in Beijing on Saturday, where Mueller scored a brace.
“I’m very surprised and impressed to see so many supporters and fans here in China,” Mueller said. “Maybe it’s because we have left Chinese fans with a good impression over the last three years. Or maybe it’s because of my performance at the World Cup.”
The team’s flight from Beijing was delayed for hours, which also delayed their public training at Shanghai Stadium yesterday evening. Hundreds of local fans wearing Bayern jerseys gathered and waited outside the stadium, and later cheered their favorite players during the training.
“I saw a lot of fans waiting at the hotel. One of them was holding a sign board reading “we have waited for you for 9 hours”, a touched Mueller said. The German World Cup-winning star said he often checks comments that Chinese fans leave on his official Weibo (a twitter-like social communication platform) account. He already has some 23,500 followers two days after the account was opened.
It was Guardiola’s first visit to Shanghai, though Bayern’s packed schedule is unlikely to allow him much time for sightseeing, as the team will head to Guangzhou for a clash against Evergrande on Thursday.
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