10 things you might not know about Pep Guardiola

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Pep Guardiola who will take over as Head Coach at MCFC next season Credit: PA

  • As a youngster doing ball-boy duties, Guardiola was once refused an autograph by Michel Platini, when offered a poster of the Frenchman which had adorned Guardiola's childhood wall.

  • Guardiola is an art lover, and spent much of his sabbatical in New York - after leaving Barcelona - around the galleries of the Big Apple.

  • His clothing has made headlines in the past. He wore a T-shirt in a pre-match press conference last season ahead of the Champions League clash against Porto carrying a slogan promoting a campaign for justice surrounding the death of an Argentinian journalist.

  • Speaking of clothes, Guardiola's relationship with wife Cristina Serra grew around the latter's family clothes shop in Manresa, in Spain's north-east.

  • A keen gold player, Guardiola attended the 2012 'Miracle in Medinah' on the invitation of Europe's Ryder Cup captain and compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal.

  • Aside from his playing career in Europe, Guardiola spent time with Al Ahly of Qatar and then Dorados de Sinaloa of Mexico, which proved his swansong.

  • Guardiola does not conduct one-on-one interviews - only press conferences.

  • Guardiola is from the small Catalan town of Santpedor in north-east Spain. In honour of Guardiola's achievements, the home ground of local team CF Santpedor was given the name Camp Municipal Josep Guardiola.

  • The municipal council also named Guardiola their "favourite son of the town" in October 2009.

  • When preparing for life in Germany, Guardiola reportedly spent hours with a German teacher while in New York. He gave parts of his first Bayern Munich press conference in German.