Valero Rivera? While this name may not ring a bell for football fans, the Spanish coach, a handball legend (world champion with Spain and six-time Champions League winner with Barcelona), nevertheless influenced one of the greatest coaches in its history. In the So Foot magazine, Paco Seirul Lo, former director of methodology at Barça and a close associate of Pep Guardiola, recounts the time when the current Manchester City coach wanted to attend the handball team's training sessions. "Pep was always trying to differentiate between the concepts of trajectory, the movements of players in each position, and their modes of communication... He wanted to understand tactical aspects from a new angle. Spatial and temporal relationships fascinated him: two-on-ones, three-on-twos, tight spaces, the importance of numerical priorities versus fixed positions... He was always asking, 'How do you gain a positional advantage? Through short or long sequences?'" For the author of the book "Barça DNA", other sports are interesting sources of inspiration for "understanding the game, relationships in space and time".
Brief
When Guardiola went to watch FC Barcelona handball... / ©Icon Sports