Girona is flying high in La Liga. It's no exaggeration to say that Girona is Guardiola's team. Yes, but of course not Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola, but his younger brother Pere Guardiola - a star in top football, in the position of player agent. Look at the list of clients to see Pere Guardiola's class in the agent world: Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta, Thiago Alcantara, Ronaldo (Brazil), Ronaldinho...
Girona are flying high in La Liga
Together with businessman Juame Roures, Pere opened the agency Media Base Sports, and then bought Girona FC. Sports director Quique Carcel and many Girona players were then Pere's clients. The next step in the deal: Media Base Sports (owned by Pere Guardiola) and City Football Group (CFG) are co-owners of Girona, with each holding 44% of the club's shares. It's no surprise that CFG is the group that owns Man.City and coach Pep Guardiola. CFG has football clubs around the world such as Man.City (England), Sichuan Jiuniu (China), Melbourne City (Australia), Yokohama F.Marinos (Japan), Palermo (Italy), New York City FC (USA), Troyes (France), Bahia (Brazil)..., and Girona FC (Spain)!
CFG's stake in Girona has continued to grow in recent years, but Girona's modus operandi has not changed since CFG's arrival in the middle of the last decade. Man.City's CEO Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain are both familiar with the Guardiola brothers, having both come from Barcelona. In the first year of their "bond", Man.City loaned out 12 players to Girona. Mutual support in terms of skills is the common modus operandi between the dozen or so teams that CFG owns. Add the "Guardiola factor" to the mix, and you can see how closely linked Girona and Manchester City are!
Of course, everything is done carefully, so as not to cause legal problems. For example, in England, it is forbidden for agents to have interests (shares or salaries…) in a club. In Spain, it is not forbidden, so Pere Guardiola freely owns the team from which he has been receiving commissions in the transfer market. Later, if Spain has unfavorable laws while England has more "liberal" regulations, who knows, Girona's offices may be moved to London or Manchester!
For now, the close relationship between Girona and Man.City could lead to big trouble in the matter of conflicts of interest. UEFA does not allow clubs with the same owner to compete in a UEFA tournament. Of course, Man.City will be in the Champions League again next season. What about Girona? There is a real possibility! This is only the 4th season in Girona's history to be in the highest level of Spanish football. Last season they were promoted and finished in the middle. This season is even better, when Girona won 6 consecutive matches to take the top spot after 7 rounds. They lost to Real Madrid in the next match. But now, Girona is in the top spot again, after round 12. Coach Michel's team is 2 points ahead of second-placed Real Madrid, 4 points ahead of Barcelona and 10 points ahead of the 5th place team in the rankings. Across Europe's five biggest leagues, only two teams are scoring more goals than Girona (Bayern Munich and Leverkusen, in the Bundesliga, which everyone knows has a very high scoring rate).
Ambition to win La Liga? If Girona were to qualify for the Champions League, that would be unimaginable. But it must be affirmed: Girona are playing very well this season. That is a shocking surprise, but it is not a coincidence. Remember: Financial Fair Play regulations still force Girona to operate within a budget of only a few tens of millions of euros, even though they are a "CFG team".
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