Pep Guardiola is influenced by many games and sports, including chess, and uses them to help formulate new strategies and tactics, according to a new book on the Manchester City coach.
Spanish journalist Marti Perarnau's latest book, "Pep Guardiola: La Metamorfosis," was released in Spain on Thursday and is due to be published in English next month.
Perarnau writes in the book: "He is very interested in the influences of other sports: like how Magnus Carlsen approaches his chess openings, and he uses a certain interpretation of that in football when coming out with the ball.
"He knows Argentina volleyball coach Julio Velasco well and he also had contact with England rugby coach Eddie Jones. Now he is very interested in the tactical movement of the All Blacks [New Zealand's rugby union team]."
Las influencias externas de Pep Guardiola y su andanza por la Bundesliga, en el nuevo libro de Martí Perarnau https://t.co/sRtVrN3j42 pic.twitter.com/ZbZIudA0ZL
- EFE Deportes (@EFEdeportes) October 20, 2016
Jones, who led England to success at the 2016 Six Nations, was impressed when watching rugby fan Guardiola conduct a training session at Bayern Munich earlier this year and said it left him embarrassed about his own coaching ability.
Guardiola is also interested in basketball and Perarnau recounts an anecdote when the former Barcelona coach made use of his knowledge of the sport when having supper with American film director Woody Allen in New York while taking a one-year sabbatical from coaching during the 2012-13 season.
Perarnau recounts: "When Allen said he didn't like soccer at all, Pep immediately said, 'Don't worry, I love basketball. Why don't we talk about the [New York] Knicks?' knowing that was his favourite team."
Perarnau, whose first book, "Pep Confidential," had focused on Guardiola's first year at Bayern Munich, has based his second book on interviews and meetings with the coach in the time since.
The book also analyses Guardiola's style of play and how it has changed throughout the years depending on the needs of his teams.
"He doesn't miss an opportunity to pick up ideas, concepts, feelings, whether it's reading a rugby book that will inspire him in his aim to perfect team spirit or observing how Atletico Madrid defends a given throw-in," Perarnau told El Confidential.
The 45-year-old Guardiola signed a three-year contract with City this summer after leading Bayern to three Bundesliga titles in his three seasons at the club.
According to Perarnau, Guardiola will only consider his future once his three years at City are up.
Perarnau said: "He does not know what he is going to do. He will complete his three-year contract with City and then we will see if he signs a contract extension or not. He will then leave and, just as he is, he will do so to get to know the world, travel, learn from the Woody Allens he meets around the world."
It is precisely that, knowing when the time is up, that is Guardiola's secret of his success, according to Perarnau.
In an excerpt from the book, Pernarbau quotes Guardiola as saying: "If I relax, the team relaxes ... That is why it's very difficult to be in the same team for three years ... After these three years here, we will have given everything. The players will have given themselves without limits and so will I."