Guardiola: “I will be a world champion with Brazil”

Pep Guardiola considering Brazil’s NT gig

More interesting news following the end of Mano Menezes’ tenure with the Seleção. The Brazilian media threw a lot of names around, from the now-government consultant in Sports Ministry Felipão to former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, but a surprising statement from the latter would put him ahead of everyone who has been cited by the pundits so far.

The founder of famous Brazilian sports journal Lance! Walter de Mattos Junior called someone who is pretty close to Guardiola in Catalunha, asking for a statement from Pep regarding Mano’s dismissal. The news wasn’t confirmed at the moment, but it took only a few minutes for Walter to hear some words from Guardiola, which were:

“The only team in the world that  I would start to train tomorrow is the Seleção. And I will be a world champion with Brazil”.

Have in mind that Guardiola is taking a sabbatical following his depart from Barcelona since June this year, and was planning to be away from football for at least a full year. Also, there were always strong rumors of Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich wanting Guardiola to take full rein at the London club.

Now, if you’re a fan of Guardiola and Brazil, I think you shouldn’t get too excited. Andrés Sanchez, one of CBF’s directors and (seemingly) the only person who defended Mano to keep his coaching job already went to the media today to say that he wouldn’t approve hiring a foreign coach.

The hope lies on José Maria Marin, current CBF’s president, and his right hand Marco Polo Del Nero. They were the ones who took the decision to fire Mano, and the former is well-known to be a politician. Guardiola seems to be a popular choice according to polls in some sports websites (see this), and even though they only give a small sample of a fanbase of 200 million people, the backlash of bringing in a foreign coach these days could be as great as the one they’d find a few years ago.

Walter de Mattos also said that there would be more details regarding the subject on Saturday’s edition of his journal here in Brazil, so I’ll bring more insight from this huge news when it comes to the public.

Reminder: Stay tuned!