‘Door closed’… Pep Guardiola rules out a second stint at Barcelona

FC Barcelona have had many different periods of success in their long and storied history. The Catalan club, irrespective of the era, have garnered a certain sense of respect for themselves. However, few would dispute what the golden generation for Barcelona truly was.

That particular generation, one that brought forward the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, and other legends of Barcelona, is widely considered to be among the greatest teams to ever grace the football pitch.

The mastermind behind that success, which involved a sextuple and success on both domestic and continental stages, was arguably Pep Guardiola. A man made and brought up in Barcelona, his destiny to coach the first team almost felt like it was written in the stars.

However, ever since his departure in 2012, Barcelona fans and neutrals of the games have thought of a possible return for Guardiola. Yet, it seems that Guardiola has moved past that stage entirely, as he continues to hunger for as much silverware as possible with his majestic Manchester City side.

Moreover, he has now explicitly closed the door to a potential return to Barcelona in the future. As reported by Fabrizio Romano, when asked if he would ever return to his Catalan club of dreams or if that door was completely closed, Pep Guardiola made his position clear: “Yes, door closed.”

That would mean that Guardiola now plans on promising his contract with Man City as it is. He has already even achieved a continental treble with the Citizens, something he previously achieved with FC Barcelona while also winning an unprecedented sextuple that only Bayern Munich has been able to match.

Coincidentally, the coach who was responsible for helping Bayern achieve the said sextuple was none other than new Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick. The German manager has already signed with the Blaugrana club for two seasons, and Barcelona seem to be quite excited about what is to come with this new path that they are on themselves.