Following the news that Spain’s Supreme Court had decided to send nine Catalan leaders to prison for sentences ranging from nine to 13 years because of alleged misuse of funds, Pep Guardiola put his Manchester City manager cap to one side and became the voice of the people.
Appearing in a video for Tsunami Democràtic, the former Barcelona coach condemned the decision, claiming it was an ‘attack on human rights’, before stating Spain now lived in ‘an authoritarian drift in which anti-terrorist laws are used to prosecute dissent’ (among many other things).
This message certainly didn’t go unnoticed, to the point where journalist Ernesto Ekaizer mused Guardiola should leave Manchester City to pursue a career in politics.
Speaking to RAC1 and relayed by Mundo Deportivo, he said: “Yesterday’s message was very important. Very, very important. I think Artur Mas said last August that he had a name of someone in mind without a political past to take head the next elections.
“We’ve now seen a very convincing Guardiola in this message. Should the candidate be Pep Guardiola? Shouldn’t he leave Manchester City? Shouldn’t it be that his wife and family, who are already in Barcelona, are thinking, if Puigdemont agrees, to being the candidate in the next regional elections?”
This is all jumping to conclusions for the time being, but we all know the Spaniard isn’t going to stay at the Etihad forever, and when he does eventually leave, it will be very interesting to see what he decides to do.
After all, he’s won major trophies in Spain, Germany and now England, so perhaps he’ll feel it’s time to do something else with his life.
Like politics.
