GUARDIOLA CHANGED MYLIFE
How Pep’s praise shaped Bayern star Kimmich
PEP GUARDIOLA seems to be an inspirational boss even for the most-seasoned professionals.
So imagine just what it is like to be 20 years old, playing for RB Leipzig and in the second division of German football one minute and having Guardiola delivering a personal tactics lesson in full public view the next. A tutorial that is so passionate and animated that it causes you literally to take three step back to accommodate his extravagant body language.
Shortly after Joshua Kimmich had joined Bayern Munich, he played in a 0-0 draw with Borussia Dortmund and, after the match, Guardiola stalked on to the pitch and sought him out. Then Bayern Munich coach, Guardiola began by remonstrating with the young player. So passionate is Guardiola’s face that you feared you were intruding on a humiliation, before smiles replace the furrowed brow and Guardiola throws his arms around Kimmich’s neck in a paternal embrace.
It is an iconic clip and it turns out Kimmich enjoyed the tete-a-tete. ‘I like this,’ he says, smiling at the memory of his former coach. ‘I enjoyed it. When someone is that emotional, this intensity for the game, this love for the game, I think that’s good. When you know how he is, his type of being coach, his style of being coach, as a player you think it’s 100 per cent natural.’
It would have been normal to have been a little over-awed. RB Leipzig may have played in the Champions League l ast season but when Kimmich was there they were still rising through the leagues. They were in the second tier when the call from his agent came. Kimmich, now 23, explains: ‘He said, “Bayern Munich wants to have you”. I was like, “Really?!”
‘I thought he was joking. I was 20 years old playing in the second division. I was like, “Why do they want to get me when they can have every player in the world?” So it was a bit strange for me. But I knew I had this great opportunity.
‘I asked if it was possible to hear the same from Pep Guardiola and ask him some questions; “Why me? Where can I play in this squad of great quality? I’m from the second division”. This was really important for me. After that I thought this is the right step and I have to take it.’
Like most who have played under Guardiola — Zlatan Ibrahimovic being an honourable exception — Kimmich will not quickly forget what he learned. ‘It was a different type of playing football,’ he says. ‘At RB Leipzig, we nearly only had a concept against the ball and now it was completely different as we had 70 per cent possession.
‘I played different positions. With Pep, it’s really important to know where team- mates are in every moment a nd a l s o where t he opponents are. So you learn and get another feeling of the space. You know every time you get the ball I can pass it to this player and this player. You know where your team-mates are, in which space. And so you think a bit different about the whole game of football.’
And the legacy is enduring. At Bayern they are still adjusting to life after Pep. Carlo Ancelotti seemed an unlikely fit, lasting just 15 months. Niko Kovac has taken the baton after Jupp Heynckes’ successful interim rescue mission.
Seven consecutive wins at the start of the season have been followed by four games without a win, culminating in a 3-0 home defeat by Borussia Monch e n g l a d b a c h . T h e jury remains out as to whether the 4 6 - y e a r- o l d C r o a t i a n is the long-term answer. The new style t hough i s a more modern fit: gegenpressing is back in, according to Kimmich, who plays right back.
It is with the German national team though that Kimmich seems to be finding his range. There, Joachim Low has installed him as the pivotal holding midfielder as he attempts to reboot the 2014 World Cup winners. And his ability to switch from holding midfield to full-back makes comparisons with Philipp Lahm natural.
‘I’m not that calm all the time like Philipp,’ he says. ‘He’s more able to control his emotions. Sometimes I’m screaming. Maybe not off the pitch but on the pitch I’m sometimes a different person.’
Fittingly, given the Pep connection, his inspiration is more Iberian. ‘Xabi Alonso was really special, especially for me,’ he says. ‘When I came [to Bayern] I played in centre midfield as a holding player and of course I looked a lot at him and tried to learn everything that he is doing. He was a perfect Pep Guardiola player, in every moment he knew where his team-mates are, where his opponents are. He had a great feeling of passing the ball in the right moment, the right speed to the right players. He knew the game and was the brain of it.’
But it is his nuanced evaluations of difficult i ssues that marks Kimmich as the face of the new generation, earmarked as a future Germany and Bayern captain.
Take the issue of Mesut Ozil, a divisive one after the Arsenal player had posed with Turkish President Erdogan prior to the World Cup. Given Erdogan’s human rights abuses, it was singularly ill judged. But what followed in some German media was an onslaught, questioning Ozil’s very commitment to the German cause.
When he quit the national team, citing the national federation’s failure to protect him from a racist backlash, the default response seemed to bewilderment among the hierarchy of the German FA and some team- mates that Ozil could suggest such a thing.
But Kimmich admitted that, while he did not understand all of Ozil’s reasoning, he added an important qualifier: ‘But that may only work if you’re in my skin.’
And Kimmich, who played in last night’s 3-0 defeat by Holland in the UEFA Nations League, wants the national team to be seen as a symbol of Germany’s ethnic diversity. ‘Football is the best way for integration. You see it with the national team, we have a lot of players with different backgrounds. We live this integration.
‘When I played in the youth team for VfB Stuttgart, we had a lot of different players from different nationalities and for me it is normal to integrate. It is no big thing for me. It is normal for me and my generation. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It has to be normal, because it is the world nowadays.’