Guardiola.. When the best coaches today were involved in a doping scandal

Pep Guardiola is now regarded as one of the best managers to ever grace the Premier League, but he was not a perfect player and was involved in a doping scandal while playing for Italian side Brescia.

The 53-year-old Spaniard has coached some of Europe's football giants including Bayern Munich and Barcelona in Germany and Spain respectively, before arriving in England in 2016 to take over from Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City.

But unlike his perfect coaching career, Guardiola was involved in a scandal that tarnished his reputation and that of his club in front of the public. We review the details.

The doping scandal

According to Honest Sport, it took Guardiola 8 years to completely clear his name, and he had to thank his old friend Manel Estiarte who discovered a new phenomenon called "unstable urine".

After a successful spell with his boyhood club, Barcelona, Guardiola opted for a new challenge in Italy with Brescia, but found himself embroiled in a devastating doping scandal just a few months after joining the club.

On 21 October 2001, after a Serie A match against Piacenza, Guardiola was taken into a doping testing room to provide a urine sample.

Surprisingly, a doping test proved the presence of the anabolic substance "nandrolone" in his body, and despite his claims of innocence on many occasions, he was suspended for 4 months after failing a second test following a crushing 0-5 defeat at the hands of Lazio on November 4, 2001.

After the appeal against the ruling failed, Guardiola stated that his body produces the banned substance internally, after being fined a total of 50,000 euros by the Italian League.
Source: British Press