5 players who became stars under Pep Guardiola

After Pep Guardiola took over as Barcelona manager in 2008, the Catalan side saw plenty of success. The Spaniard achieved all this by putting his faith in some youngsters from the famous and renowned La Masia. And his faith was repaid by a number of these players.Under the Spanish manager, many players made their first team debuts for Barcelona and quite a few of these players rose to stardom.Here are the five best picks from players who became stars under the guidance of Pep Guardiola. 

#5 Thiago Alcantara

In 2009, at the age of 19, Pep Guardiola gave Thiago his first team debut for Barcelona. The Spaniard, who was born to Brazilian parents in Italy, made just three first-team appearances till the end of the 2009/10 season.

During the 2010/11 season, Thiago was given involved more with the first team and made 17 appearances scoring 3 goals. He was dubbed to be the heir for an ageing Xavi and naturally he was given more first-team action during Guardiola’s final season in charge, making 45 appearances overall.

Thiago is a versatile midfielder. He has the dribbling skills and the ability to provide accurate through balls, which are necessary for an attacking midfielder, as well as brilliant passing ability and excellent vision to play as a deep-lying playmaker.

After the departure of Guardiola, Thiago’s involvement with Barcelona’s first team didn’t improve and he was attracting the attention of several top European clubs at that point. But Guardiola stepped in and Thiago moved to Bayern Munich and upon joining the club, Thiago said: “ Guardiola is a coach who has placed great faith in me. I'm a huge fan of the way he likes football to be played.”

At Bayern Munich, Thiago played a central midfield role and was pulling the strings with his brilliant passing. In fact, during a Bundesliga game against Eintracht Frankfurt, he set a Bundesliga record with 185 touches of the ball. 

Thiago started his Bayern Munich career in impressive fashion before an injury cut short his season prematurely. But as long as Guardiola is in charge of Bayern Munich, Thiago will keep improving as a player.