031: Guillem Balague on the sports psychology of Pep Guardiola and Diego Maradona

A Load of BS on Sport: The Behavioural Science Podcast with Daniel Ross and Liam Botham

I'm talking football and psychology with Guillem Balague, someone whose work I admire and whose commentary on the game of football is eloquent, thoughtful and profound. Like me, Guillem is endlessly curious about what makes people tick, the psychology of sport, how players and coaches become successful, and also why they go wrong. Guillem has written superb biographies of some of the most iconic players in history: Pep Guardiola, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi; and Mauricio Pochettino.
Here we focus on Pep Guardiola and Diego Maradona, two icons of sport whose characters and trajectories couldn't be more different; and all the more fascinating for that as I try to understand with Guillem what made them the men they are, or indeed were, their successes, failures and idiosyncrasies.

Show notes

• What got Guillem into football writing?
• What characters fascinate Guillem?
• What’s Guillem’s writing process to get under the skin of his protagonists?
• Who is Pep and what drives him?
• How Pep creates belonging in his teams
• Sacrifice and service to the cause
• How do Diego’s origins explain the man?
• Diego’s self-destruction
• Diego: myth vs. reality
• Love affair with Napoli
• Conflict in team environments
• Pep and Mourinho
• Pep and Ferguson

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Podcast music: Tamsin Waley-Cohen's Mendelssohn's violin concerto