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The accolades keep coming for Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona as they were yesterday named the Laureus team of the year. Here is what Barcelona President Sandro Rosell had to say after the award ceremony:
“The nominations of Abidal, Messi and the club are an honour, and it will help us keep on working and thinking about how to keep up this level in the future.
It’s very hard to achieve things in life, but it’s harder still to maintain that level [of excellence].”
According to Gaizka Mendieta , there is a big possibility that Barca coach Pep Guardiola could soon be on his way out of the record breaking club. A lot of uncertainty has arisen over Guardiola’s future following his shocking denial on Tuesday that he was close to signing a new contract.
It doesn’t make any sense why Pep would want to leave Barcelona. I mean he is one of the best paid coaches in the world at an annual salary of £8.7 million, he has won 13 out of a possible 16 titles since taking over from Frank Rijkaard in 2008 and you can’t forget the title wining machine he has developed at Barca that would be hard to replicate in any other team.
There is a real possibility that we will see Jose Mourinho pacing the touchline in the Premier League next season.
Despite being 7 points clear at the top of La Liga, and into the Champions League knockout stages, Mourinho is growing tired of the snipping in Madrid and said on Tuesday that “I don’t know if I will be here next season.”
The Special One has 18 months left on his current Madrid contract, so this is the time we should be hearing about a contract extension and not him leaving.
It is looking more and more likely that Real Madrid will walk away with the La Liga title this season. A 3-1 win over Real Zaragoza at the Santiago Bernabeu yesterday coupled with Barcelona‘s barren draw with relegation threatened Villarreal pushed them 7 points clear at the top of the table.
Goals from Kaka, Ronaldo and Ozil were enough to quell recent jeers and unrest that have taunted Mourinho for the past week and led to disharmony in the squad while also helping to erase memories of their humiliating home loss to Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey a fortnight ago.
According to media reports in Spain, Jose Mourinho will quit his job as Real Madrid manager this summer.
For the first time Mourinho was booed and whistled at by the Bernabeu faithful as rumors continue to swirl around the team of divisions within the squad.
The sensational claim that Mourinho will quit came from highly-respected Spanish football journalist Siro Lopez, who said after Real Madrid‘s 4-1 win against Athletic Bilbao at the weekend that the former Chelsea boss will walk away from his £11.5 million-a-year job at the end of the season.
Both Real Madrid and Barcelona were winners yesterday to ensure that their is no let up in the La Liga title race. However, despite the win, things are not looking too rosy for Madrid Coach Jose Mourinho.
Madrid fans were heard jeering Mourinho despite his side’s 4-1 over Athletic Bilbao. The main reason for their actions was that they are getting tired of always falling short in the El Clasico fixture against arch rivals Barcelona.
Being a Madrid fan myself, i feel the frustrations of the club supporters. In all their 9 meetings since taking over from Pellegrini in 2010, Mourinho has only managed to beat Guardiola’s Barcelona once!
Barcelona looked like they were headed for a draw before Alexis Sanchez and Messi scored in the span of 10 minutes to hand the Catalans a much needed 4-2 win over Real Betis that reduced their deficit on Leaders Real Madrid to 5 points.
World Player of the year Lionel Messi scored a brace to bring his tally for the season to 19 goals, just 2 short of leading goal scorer Cristiano Ronaldo. The two are set to meet in Wednesday’s Copa Del Rey quarter final in Madrid in a battle of the titans.
Real Madrid need a late winner from Jose Callejon to beat Real Mallorca and ensure they continued with their amazing streak that has seen them win 3 fixtures since their infamous 3-1 home loss to Barcelona.
Madrid do not seem like letting go of the top spot at least for now and though their arch rivals Barca are yet to play, a win for the Catalans will only bring them to within 5 points of Madrid.
Barcelona prepare to face Real Betis today and with an injury hit squad, Pep Guardiola has been forced to use the club youth players through out the remaining period of the transfer window.
Lionel Messi has been named by FIFA as the best player of 2011 for the third straight year. Messi equals Platini, Cruyff and Van Basten, the only players to ever win three Ballon d’Or titles.
Messi took almost 48% of the vote, with Ronaldo second with less than 22% and Xavi was a distant third with just over 9%.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and Xavi both paid tribute to Messi.
Ferguson said Messi could now be judged alongside the greats of world football through the ages, even though he is still only 24.
The legend of Pep Guardiola continues as he was named the best manager of 2011, ahead of José Mourinho (Real Madrid), last year’s winner, and Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United).
Guardiola, who was recently named the world’s best manager by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), picks up yet another acknowledgement to his brilliant career. Guardiola has already won 13 out 16 possible titles with FC Barcelona, 5 of which were won in 2011.
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