Guardiola: “Catalonia is my country. And it is not Spain”

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In a report broadcast by the German TV channel, ZDF, the quotation “Catalonia is my country. And it is not Spain” was put into the mouth of the Catalan football manager to promote the report, although the phrase is not accurate.

The journalist who produced the report, went to Santpedor, the birthplace of Guardiola, and included extracts from other videos, including one from La Sexta (Spanish TV) in which the former Barcelona (*) manager said that “Catalonia is my country, and if I played for Spain it is only because the Catalan national team cannot play in international competitions”

Recently the current manager of Bayern Munich, gave encouragement to the journalist Francisco Garriga, who came to the attention of UEFA for asking a question in Catalan, asking him to do so again. When he said: “As I was rebuked by UEFA yesterday for asking a question in Catalan, today I will do so in Spanish”, Pep Guardiola replied, “You are mistaken, you may speak Catalan.”

You can see the dialogue which took place at the Press room of the Bernabeu stadium on the page of the Catalan TV3 Sports channel.

* The original text refers to Guardiola as the former 'blaugrana' manager. The word blaugrana literally translates as claret and blue, and refers to the colours of the Barcelona team's home kit. It is used in much the same way as the Liverpool team are often referred to as the 'reds', and Everton as the 'blues'.