Pep Guardiola arrived in Munich ten years ago on a flight from Marrakesh to a wave of positive headlines. He was dubbed ‘Mr Club World Cup’ by one German tabloid. They spoke of the “Bayern empire” in his own Spain. Guardiola had only been Bayern Munich’s head coach for a few months, but he was already in charge of the team’s trophy conveyor belt.

Bayern’s annexation of the 2013 Club World Cup, with a 2-0 victory over Raja Casablanca in Morocco, brought Guardiola’s total number of Club World Cups to three. The team had won the treble of the Bundesliga, German Cup, and Uefa Champions League that year under veteran Jupp Heynckes, who stepped down to make way for Guardiola, who had returned to management after a year’s hiatus.

His signature was on the Fifa club title. Bayern’s starting lineup had tactical changes. Thiago Alcantara’s second goal sealed the victory. Thiago was the Barcelona acquisition on whom Guardiola was most insistent when he arrived.

A fourth Club World Cup, this time with a squad he has spent seven and a half years molding, Manchester City, is generally expected on Friday against Fluminense, and would vault Guardiola to the top of the competition’s standings on his own.

Carlo Ancelotti has caught up to Guardiola in the decade after his third success, guiding Real Madrid to championships in 2014 and 2022 to add to the Italian’s gold medal with AC Milan in 2007. However, repeat victories are uncommon. Only Zinedine Zidane (two first-place finishes with Real Madrid), Ancelotti, and Guardiola have won the competition more than once since its inception at the beginning of the millennium.

Even as the coach of giants like Bayern Munich and Barcelona, accumulating is difficult. Guardiola’s long association with the trophy City hopes to win against Fluminense in Jeddah got off to a rocky start. His historic first 18 months as manager of Barcelona are remembered as a heavenly waltz to six trophies and a team superbly crafted around a majority of home-grown stars. But, of the six trophies won by Barcelona in 2009, the Club World Cup was the one that came the closest to eluding them.

Guardiola’s first season in charge at Barcelona, 2008/09, saw the club win La Liga by nine points, the Spanish Cup and Super Cup by crushing Athletic Bilbao, and the European Cup by defeating Manchester United 2-0.

The crowd for the final in Abu Dhabi, which was hosting the first of five Club World Cup tournaments, was treated to genuine suspense. Estudiantes of Argentina led for 57 minutes of the first 90 minutes, with Barcelona struggling to convert their superior possession into an equalizer after Mauro Boselli’s header put Estudiantes ahead. Guardiola scowled and winced as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry missed chances and Lionel Messi was thwarted, often fiercely, by his defenders.

Pedro, on as a substitute, scored a rare headed goal with a minute remaining in normal time to send the game into extra time. A really unusual Messi finish would give Barcelona the victory. He wrapped a cross around his chest, or more specifically, his left rib cage. At the last whistle, Guardiola was filled with passion and in tears.

Two years later, Guardiola’s Barcelona, now regarded as possibly the greatest club team of the twenty-first century, traveled to Yokohama to face Santos, who boasted a teenage star named Neymar and a highly-rated playmaker named Ganso. The same Neymar who would join Barcelona 18 months later; the same Ganso who will play in Fluminense’s midfield on Friday evening, now 34.

Barcelona won 4-0. In the final, eleven players from the club’s youth divisions competed. Messi scored two beautiful goals, Xavi added another, and Cesc Fabregas tucked in Barcelona’s third after a Thiago header was parried.

It was the 13th title won by Guardiola’s Barcelona in the previous 16 competitions. “This will be remembered, even if the players are unaware of it right now,” he said.

Six months later, he resigned from his position at Barcelona and relocated to New York for a portion of his year off, where Bayern came calling, leading the pursuit to make him their conqueror of the globe, their innovator.

The German champions displayed typical Guardiola characteristics in the 2013 Club World Cup final. They had a ‘false nine’ in Thomas Muller, and captain Philipp Lahm was settling into his new role in center midfield, where the new coach had moved him from full-back.

Bayern led Raja 2-0 by halftime, quieting the Marrakech crowd, and as they celebrated their first Club World Cup, their executives congratulated themselves on hiring the most sought-after coach in the sport, their guide and guru until City offered him the chance to create a dynasty.