Guardiola and Baggio, the special relationship born in Brescia-Corriere.it

“I didn’t want you». Thus began, over twenty years ago, the story (of love) between Guardiola and Italy. Brescia, 27 September 2001: the team is in training camp, the coach is Carletto Mazzone. Pep they took it almost in secret. Giunti already had that role, playmaker in front of the defence. «We don’t even talk about it – was the reply of the Roman coach when the negotiation had been submitted to him a few days before -. I spent my word to convince Giunti to leave Milan, I won’t make a fool of myself. Leave it alone immediately.” Gino Corioni’s response was legendary, the president who wanted at all costs another champion to join Roberto Baggio: «It’s too late now, it’s already here». That’s exactly what happened to him: Mazzone sees Guardiola at the buffet. He joins him and says to him: «Know that I I didn’t want you. But I’m neither mad nor stupid.”

Eight years later, on May 27, 2009, Guardiola will invite him to Rome for the Champions League final then won by his Barcelona against Manchester United. «A lot of what I know, I learned from Carletto» Pep still reiterates today.

The triad Mazzone-Guardiola-Baggio it was the fortune of Brescia at the beginning of the millennium, the golden age of the blue-and-white club, now sadly relegated to Serie C. The friendship between the three still goes on today. «I was pleased that Roby was here – said Pep after the victory in Istanbul over Inter -. He brings me luck, he was also there when I won the Champions League final in Rome against Manchester United with Barcelona ». Yes: in addition to Mazzone, Baggio was also at the Olimpico in 2009.

Mazzone’s strategy, Guardiola’s assists, Baggio’s goals: that’s how it worked. That Brescia lived glorious years. «Roberto had a gift – the current coach of City champions of Europe recounted one day -, he always understood where to be found on the pitch, in the empty space that was always unmarked. You knew he was there, and he was there.’

Of that friendship, we have an iconic image, dated April 21, 2002. Roby starts on the bench after a cruciate injury that kept him out for three months: when he enters the field, Pep joins him, takes off the captain’s armband and puts it on his arm. An outstanding gesture. If you look at the photo, behind the two there is Mazzone himself, with his inimitable air of him a little grim a little smiling. And to think that Pep «nun» wanted him. But great coaches, great men, are like this: they know how to change their minds when it’s right.

Baggio that afternoon will score a brace in the 3-0 against Fiorentina which will be worth salvation. One day Sor Carletto asked Guardiola: «Peppe, why did you come here to Brescia, after a life at Barcelona, ​​you could have gone everywhere, what are you really doing here?». Answer: «Mister, I wanted to play with Roberto Baggio, I grew up with the legend of Baggio». A true and no-nonsense Roman, a sophisticated and cosmopolitan hipster, a bashful Venetian Buddhist and lover of the woods: an eclectic trident, indeed. But how much beauty, in those distant years.