After staying one more year at River, finally the Diablito lands in European soccer, more precisely at Pep Guardiola's Manchester City. The young player arrives in the midst of a bad citizen era both locally (far from the leader Liverpool) and continentally (having been eliminated from the Champions League round of 16 by Real Madrid after barely qualifying) and will try to give a fresh face to the team of the experienced coach.
"Echeverri? Good, good skill. He's welcome. We're going to help him," said the coach when asked about the arrival of the young Argentine.
Since he became a coach, Pep has had 11 Argentinians in the different teams he has managed. Below we will review in chronological order this elite list in which all had a past or present in the Argentine National Team, a clear demonstration of the Spanish coach's enhancement.
- Lionel Messi
The best player of all time marked a turning point both in Barcelona's history and in the coach's career. The Rosario star was under Pep's orders between 2008 and 2012, being the one he managed the most with 219 matches, in which Leo scored 211 goals and won 14 titles, including the famous "Sextete" of 2009 (Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, and Club World Cup).
- Gabriel Milito
The defender was managed for three seasons by Guardiola at Barcelona, between 2008 and 2011. The former Independiente player didn't have much action in this cycle, playing only 34 matches and scoring just one goal, due to his constant injuries, however, player and coach managed to have a very good relationship. A clear example of this was Pep's decision to let Milito give the pre-match talk before the 2009 Club World Cup final against Estudiantes de La Plata so that his teammates would understand what it was like to face a South American team.
- Javier Mascherano
The historic Barcelona defender was a specific request from Guardiola for the 2010/2011 season after seeing his performance at Liverpool, having to shell out 22 million euros to secure his services. After initially playing him a bit as a central midfielder, Pep moved him to defense, where the "Jefecito" quickly took over the central position, enhancing him in that role. They shared 2 years at the club, marking the first 97 of Masche's 333 matches at Barcelona and won 6 titles.
- Sergio "Kun" Agüero
After his successful stint at Bayern Munich, in 2016 Pep would arrive at Manchester City, finding a Kun in full physical and playing form. Like with Messi, Guardiola is the coach who managed him the most, with 182 matches in which the forward scored 124 goals. They were together until 2021, when the player didn't renew his contract with the citizens and moved to Barcelona, where he had to retire due to health issues.
- Pablo Zabaleta
The defender was another of the squad's leaders at the time of the Spanish coach's arrival. Unlike Kun, Pep managed him for a very short time, being under his orders only in the 2016/2017 season in 32 matches, where the right-back scored 2 goals and didn't win any titles. After his time at City, in 2017 he moved to West Ham, retiring there in 2020.
