Barcelona's top 10 academy graduates

#6 Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola succeeded at Barcelona as a player and a manager

While he’s now better-known as a manager, who of course delivered an unprecedented level of success to Barcelona in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, Pep Guardiola was also one of the highest-rated players to have ever been produced by La Masia, and across the 1990’s he established himself as one of La Blaugrana’s most important players.

Guardiola joined the Catalan club at the age of 13 and rose through the ranks for 6 years before debuting in their first team in 1990. Deployed as a deep-lying playmaker by Johan Cruyff, the 20-year old became a first-team regular in the 1991-92 season, and ended it with victories in La Liga and the European Cup too.

It was 2001 by the time Guardiola finally left the Nou Camp, moving at the age of 30 to Serie A side Brescia. By the point that he left, he’d completed an impressive 11 seasons in Barca’s first team, amassing 382 appearances and collecting 15 trophies – including 6 La Liga titles – along the way. 7 years later he’d return as first team manager – and the rest is history.