Half of the remaining UEFA Champions League coaches are Barcelona products
Luis Enrique, Pep Guardiola, Xavi, and Mikel Arteta have two things in common. They are four of the last remaining eight coaches in the UEFA Champions League. They’re also all former FC Barcelona academy players.
Luis Enrique, Guardiola, and Xavi all played for Barcelona’s first team. In fact, all three appeared in matches together.
Arteta played for Barcelona B after coming through the youth academy, but he never played for the first team. However, he could not break into the team, partly because they already had the three others previously mentioned.
He played for many clubs in his career, most notably Everton and Arsenal, but he never got a Spanish national team call-up beyond senior level.
Meanwhile, Guardiola became one of the most influential coaches ever after managing Barcelona, then Bayern Munich, and currently, Manchester City. It was at City that he picked Arteta to be his assistant. Now, Arteta is in a title race with his mentor as the coach of Arsenal.
Luis Enrique won the Champions League managing Barcelona and had some deep runs managing the Spanish national team, although his teams failed to win any silverware. He now coaches Paris Saint-Germain.
Finally, we have Xavi. He won everything, including the Champions League with Barcelona and the FIFA World Cup with Spain, as a player. As a coach, he won La Liga with Barcelona. This season has proven a challenge for him, and he has announced his departure from the club at the end of the season.
It’s very rare that four players who all came from the same academy and knew each other as players get to coach top teams. It’s even more rare that they should all progress through the knockout rounds of Europe’s top competition.
