Guardiola praises Lamine Yamal and supports his renewal with Barça

Pep Guardiola recently made a public appearance at the seventh edition of the Trophy Legends, held at the PGA Catalunya. During this appearance, he did not shy away from answering questions related to Barcelona, a club he left in 2012 but with which he maintains a special bond. To this day, his name remains part of the living history of the institution, and he has shown that he closely follows the team's current affairs.

• PEP GUARDIOLA'S NUMBERS AS FC BARCELONA COACH: 247 matches managed, 179 wins, 47 draws, and 21 losses. 14 titles.

Firstly, the man from Santpedor did not hesitate to acknowledge the great season that FC Barcelona has had in this 2024/25 season, and he expressed optimism regarding the future of the team led by Hansi Flick. "We join the general feeling: it has been an extraordinary year. They have achieved almost perfect results. Hopefully, the young core they have can allow us to enjoy for many years," he argued.

Guardiola spoke about Lamine Yamal: talent, comparisons with Messi, and Ballon d'Or option

After that, he spoke at length about the great culé gem, Lamine Yamal, urging that he not be constantly compared to Leo Messi and be allowed to write his own history: "I have no idea if he will end up playing centrally or not; on the wing, he is also very unbalancing. Let him make his career, and then we will see if he can be compared to the greatest. He is in the best place in the world to grow, with the nuances of Flick, who has proven to be very brilliant. Everything points to the fact that, if he doesn't have injuries, he will have an excellent career due to the amount of talent he has," he asserted.

Next, Guardiola also referred to the options of the Spanish-Moroccan genius to win the 2025 Ballon d'Or, an award he arrives at as one of the great favorites, like other players such as Raphinha or Ousmane Dembélé:

"Obviously, he can be a candidate, like Dembélé. The award is always given to whoever deserves it. The fact that he can be nominated at seventeen years old is already impressive."

He also responded to the question of whether he considers Lamine one of the best players of the moment: "He is very good. In the match against Inter, everyone passed him the ball. It is surprising what he does at seventeen years old. As Hansi said, hopefully, he will continue working. It is evident that he is in the best possible place. As a Barça member, I am happy," he commented.

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In addition, Pep admitted that he understands that Barcelona, in its process of renewing the '19' blaugrana, can opt to place him at the top of the salary scale as one of the best-paid players in the squad, as he is one of the key pieces of the project:

"If they pay him that, it is because he deserves it. He is surrounded by the right people, he is training. That affected Messi zero. If the clubs pay, it is because the players deserve it. I am happy that he can continue."

Joan García and Ter Stegen: Guardiola responds about City's alleged interest in signing them

In another vein, Guardiola 'got wet' about Manchester City's alleged interest in acquiring the services of Joan García this summer. He acknowledged that they have good references from the Catalan goalkeeper but wanted to downplay the matter: "It seems to me that he will be a very good goalkeeper. If we are interested or not? It seems that City is interested in 500 players every window. There is some 'parakeet' in this tournament who tells me that he is an extraordinary goalkeeper. And the references we have are very good," he revealed.

Finally, also asked about whether Manchester City would go for Ter Stegen if Barça put him on the market, Pep did not give too many clues, although he made it clear that his goal, for now, is well covered: "I touch little on goalkeepers. That they stop and make good passes. For a few weeks now, when we talk about the situation of the squad... we have two goalkeepers who will continue," he concluded.