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#3 Pep Guardiola - Barcelona
Appointed to coach Barcelona's B team in June 2007, Pep Guardiola led the side to the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which they eventually won, thereby earning promotion. Soon after, in May 2008, Guardiola was picked to replace Frank Rijkaard as the coach of the senior team.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Guardiola went on to spend 4 seasons at the club, from July 2008 and June 2012, winning 14 major titles along the way (including 3 La Liga titles and 2 UEFA Champions League titles), becoming the most successful manager in Barcelona's history. Notably, he won the treble in his very first season, before infamously winning the sextuple soon after.
Apart from leading Barcelona to titles, he also played a crucial role in Lionel Messi's rise to prominence, utilising the Argentinian to perfection. In April 2012, Barcelona found themselves knocked out of the UEFA Champions League after a 2-3 loss (on aggregate) to Chelsea in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Just 3 days later, Guardiola decided to draw the curtains on his time at Barcelona, citing exhaustion as the deciding factor, claiming that his time at the Catalan club had felt like an eternity.
What astonished most, was his willingness to terminate the exciting rivalry that the world had come to witness between himself and then Real Madrid manager, Jose Mourinho - perhaps even the rivalry of the decade.
With things going the way they were, few expected Guardiola to put an end to his Barcelona managerial career, but as we've come to learn over time, Pep Guardiola does what Pep Guardiola pleases.
Departing the club with a staggering win record of 72.5% after 247 games in charge, Guardiola decided to relocate to New York for a year-long sabbatical before going on to conquer the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and more recently, the Premier League with Manchester City.
