fic: a beautiful friendship (football rpf)

[meretricula]

title: a beautiful friendship
fandom: football rpf
pairing: Jose Mourinho/Pep Guardiola (ish. but mostly gen.)
rating: G
word count: 1000
summary: A quiet phonecall between two family men.
notes: man, if you asked me to explain this, I don't think I could. very, very loosely inspired by the knowledge that Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho used to get together with some friends and talk football way back in the day, and my own speculation that in spite of all their personal differences they probably understand each other better than almost anyone else. they get painted as extremes in the media, but at the end of the day they're both husbands and fathers who don't get much time to spend with their families.



a beautiful friendship

"You know," Pep said, sounding oddly reflective, "I really miss you sometimes."

"I'd say I'm flattered, but I doubt you meant it as a compliment."

"Well, it's strange, don't you think? You'd think I'd miss Luis, or Johan, or - I don't know, Michael. Zubi before I got him back, maybe. And I did, you know, I do, but most of the time it's you. I don't know why."

"Maybe I had one of the physios hypnotize you into it. You were in their offices enough, nobody would have noticed."

Pep laughed. "Jose, not even you think that far ahead. Though I know you'd love for me to believe you can. No, I think… oh, I don't know what I think. After you went back to Portugal, and then when I was in Italy, I kept wanting to call you and talk tactics. That's not so strange. Or my classes, when I was in Mexico, I'd learn something and want to know what you thought about it."

"If you want me to critique what you're planning for two weeks from now, I'd be happy to go over your notes with you," Jose said dryly.

"That's all right," Pep said, and Jose could hear his smile in his voice. "I did learn how to handle things on my own. Good thing, or you wouldn't respect me much."

"I've always respected you. Even if you are a bit of an idiot about things sometimes." Jose leaned back in his chair, letting the day-old tension in his shoulders drain away. He didn't think he needed it now. "And a lucky idiot at that - what would you miss me for now? I'm right here. Closer than you'd like, I think."

Pep made a humming noise, then adjusted his handset so that Jose could only barely make out a muffled, "In a minute, sweetheart, Daddy's on the phone." There was a rustling noise, then he continued, "Sorry about that."

"No, no, no problem. Bedtime is bedtime."

"Well, I was the one who called you, so I'm still sorry. Do you need to tuck anyone in?"

"Not yet. They're a bit older than yours, you know."

"Mmm. I haven't seen them in a long time. I suppose I forget that they keep growing when you're not watching."

"That's more often than I like." There was a brief, companionable silence, which Jose finally felt impelled to break. "So what's on your mind, that you had to call up your great rival to discuss?"

"What great rival?" Pep mocked, though he sounded more amused than scornful. "You certainly haven't gotten any more modest since they ran you out of Italy. No, no, I'm sorry, that was unkind of me, and unfair. Forgive me."

"There's nothing to forgive," Jose said, because there wasn't. He wasn't so weak that careless or even malicious words could hurt him - not from Pep, not from some idiot Italian journalist. And anyway, it was half-true: he'd certainly never prided himself on humility.

"Ah, well. I suppose I happened to be in a bit of a nostalgic mood today. Even if it hadn't been down to you or me, I wouldn't have wanted you here," Pep said, too easily to have meant any cruelty by it. He was good at many things, and brilliant at others, but he was an amazingly awful liar. "You've always had the most extraordinary gift for finding beautiful things and breaking them to make them work better. They would have won for you but they wouldn't have been Barcelona."

"And you've always been a hopeless idealist," Jose said, unoffended.

"Well, someone has to be. And I suppose this is the closest you'll ever be to me again, but I still can't like where you are."

"It isn't where I am, I think, it's what I am. Or maybe who. I'm not Luis, you know."

"You'd never be that stupid," Pep snorted. "Or so pointlessly proud. No, I know who you are. And you know who I am. Better than anyone else ever has, at least. That might be what I miss the most, in the end."

Jose let the silence drag on longer this time, while he worked out what he wanted to say. It wasn't often that anyone surprised him, but he wasn't about to let that force him into a misstep. "Bring Cristina with you, the next time you're in Madrid," he said abruptly. "Tami gets sick of hearing nothing but football, football, all the time." Pep made a small, startled noise, and Jose smiled. "We can talk about the Bundesliga and Eredivisie without any problems, I think. As a purely theoretical exercise, of course. And Zuca and Mathilde should know what you look like from something other than television, at least."

"I… would like that very much," Pep said slowly. "And - not the next time you're in Barcelona, I think. But if you find yourself there for other reasons, I would like you to see my family as well." Jose heard a girl's voice, quiet and indistinct, at Pep's end of the line, and Pep's reply. He didn't bother trying to cover the mouthpiece this time, but he was speaking in Catalan. Jose had learned to understand and even speak the language during his time in Barcelona, but he hadn't had much opportunity to use it since he'd left. "I have to go, I'm afraid, but I'll see you in a few weeks. May the best man win, I suppose?"

"The best team," Jose corrected. "It isn't about us, after all." Pep was still laughing as he hung up. Jose made a mental note to call Luis sometime soon, then put the phone away and went to see how Mathilde and Zuca were getting along with their homework. Tami managed it all perfectly well when he wasn't home, of course, but since he was home, he thought he would like to spend some time with his children.

notes:

1. Jose Mourinho worked on the coaching staff at Barcelona from 1996 to 2000, and thus was well-acquainted with Pep Guardiola and Luis Figo, among others. He started out as a translator for Bobby Robson and worked his way up to assistant manager before leaving Barcelona to become head coach of the Portuguese club Benfica.

2. Luis is Luis Figo, former Barcelona player. Johan is Johan Cruyff, former Barcelona player and coach. Michael is Michael Laudrup, former Barcelona player. Zubi is Andoni Zubizarreta, former Barcelona player and member of the current management staff.

3. Mourinho, Guardiola and Figo apparently participated in an informal football discussion club with Laurent Blanc and Gica Popescu while they were all at Barcelona.

4. Luis Figo's transfer from Barcelona to arch-rivals Real Madrid in 2000 was the source of great controversy. Guardiola and Figo had been close friends before Figo's move.

5. Before Guardiola was given the job of first-team coach of Barcelona in 2008, Jose Mourinho was the primary candidate for the position. Mourinho himself has stated that Guardiola was the right choice for the job.

6. Both Guardiola and Mourinho keep their families out of the public eye, so not much is known about them. Guardiola and his partner Cristina have two daughters and a son. Mourinho and his wife Mathilde (Tami) have a daughter named Mathilde and a son named Jose (Zuca).

7. Guardiola and Mourinho are (obviously) the current coaches of Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively, and will face off in Barcelona for the first Clasico of the season on November 29, 2010.

8. As always, if you want to know more about Barcelona than you can find out from these footnotes, this post is here to help. And if you have any other questions, please ask! I'm always happy to talk about my club.

9. Title and cut-text are quotes from the movie Casablanca.

Comments

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is lovely. I'll admit to getting a ton of amusement out of Mourinho's antics, but he's not a cartoon character much as he does appear to have been practically made for macros and gifs. And okay, I vaguely remember the story, but I'm still fuzzy on the details--how on earth did Guardiola get the job at Barca over Jose? Am I right in thinking it had something to do with Laporta?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

thank you! I love Mourinho in all of his ridiculous glory, but I was also really struck by this article (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/web/COM1175106/index.htm) by Sid Lowe - there's no way that he's actually as much of a mastermind as we all think he is. (but oh, the macros. and the gifs.)

I don't have an article to hand, but I know there's a story about Pep telling Laporta, at the beginning of the year when he was coaching Barça B, that he wanted the first team job "but you don't have the balls to give it to me". and in the end it was Laporta who pushed to appoint Pep, which was a staggeringly unpopular decision at the time. (hard to believe! in retrospect Laporta looks like a genius.) the vast majority of the fans wanted Mourinho. you have to wonder how much it was a cash issue, though - Mourinho is REALLY REALLY EXPENSIVE. and Guardiola had no experience at all at the time, so he was presumably dirt-cheap. I don't know how much he makes now but it's probably still peanuts compared to Mou.

[mardia.livejournal.com]

The macros and the gifs are, quite frankly--AWESOME. And man, Laporta does look like a genius in retrospect, jeez. It's easy to say now, but it is impossible for me to imagine anyone but Pep coaching Barca, but especially Mourinho. Speaking of Mourinho, have you ever seen Special 1 TV?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

who even knows what would have happened. unstoppable force meeting an immovable object - I can't help but wonder if Barcelona fans would actually have been obsessed enough with style over results to run him out of town for winning ugly. haha, no! what is it? Mou is pretty much the only thing about RM that I like so I tend to avoid places where I would find out about awesome Mou-related things. :)

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, you'll LOVE it, it's a British comedy sketch show with puppets mimicking the football pundit shows. And the puppets there are caricatures of Jose Mourinho, Sven Goran-Erickkson, and Wayne Rooney. (It used to be known as Setanta Sports, but is now known as Special 1 TV, after the Special One, of course.) It had a run for the World Cup, and just returned after a long hiatus. All the clips are up on Youtube, and it has "call-in" guests like David Beckham, Rafa Benitez, Arsene Wenger (called "Voyeur" after some run in that the real coaches had where Mou called Wenger that) and Sir Alex Ferguson. Here's the most recent episode, dealing with the Rooney transfer mess:

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

haha oh god I wonder if Mou knows that he has a sketch comedy show dedicated to him. ...holy shit I wonder if Mou has seen the musical interlude on Crackovia where he and Pep are singing to each other. WHERE'S THE FOURTH WALL IT'S VANISHED OH GOD. XDDD

[mardia.livejournal.com]

HEEE. Considering that Pique and Puyol have already guest-starred with their Crackovia counterparts, I can't imagine that at least the Real Madrid players don't know about the show. Poor Sergio Ramos.

HEEE JOSE AND PEP SINGING TO EACH OTHER. HEE HEE HEE.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

unfortunately these actors do not sing as well as the guy who plays Cristiano Ronaldo. but still. :D

[mardia.livejournal.com]

HEEE. It's going to take a lot to top the Real Madrid-Grease mashup, that was HILARIOUS. On the subject of Crackovia, somebody had a gif of the Crackovia version of the Barca players making out on the bench while Pep looked on incredulously, do you have any idea where that came from?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

OMG NO HAVE NOT SEEN, WHAT WHAT WHAT.

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

"Great rival!" Pep said, laughing. "You certainly haven't gotten any more modest since they ran you out of Italy.
:D



"And you've always been a hopeless idealist," Jose said, unoffended.

"Well, someone has to be. And I suppose this is the closest you'll ever be to me again, but I still can't like where you are."

"It isn't where I am, I think, it's what I am. Or maybe who. I'm not Luis, you know."

"You'd never be that stupid," Pep snorted. "Or so pointlessly proud. No, I know who you are. And you know who I am. Better than anyone else ever has, at least. That might be what I miss the most, in the end."

i just. ok. that was so appropriate. i like how pragmatic jose is, how matter-of-fact he is about correcting pep, it's not about us it's about the team. and football as a theoretical exercise omg pep would never say something like that.

i've been meaning to ask you this all day but idk i forgot: how is pep a silver fox if he doesn't have any hair?? this is a very important question. personally i think he is still this side of being an 'older' man.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

:DDD I am glad you read it because nobody else will, haha. and oh, why do I even ship this, I'm such a loon. (though looooool the bit about Jose saying "it isn't us, it's the team" is him teasing Pep, he totally does think it's about him vs Pep but Pep is always the one insisting that the manager isn't all that important. which Jose naturally thinks is bullshit. XD he is the Special One, of course he is the most important!)

that is an excellent question! Idk, I guess I use the term "silver fox" by metonymy to mean any sexy older gentleman? I mean, Pep is what, almost forty now, he's a bit old for me. THOUGH I WOULD STILL HIT IT LIKE THE FIST OF AN ANGRY GOD, DON'T GET ME WRONG. and while he has very little hair, it's true, his stubble is going gray!

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

IT IS A BEAUTIFUL FIC EVERYONE SHOULD SHIP IT READ IT.

he totally does think it's about him vs Pep but Pep is always the one insisting that the manager isn't all that important
hahaha how did i misread that

I guess I use the term "silver fox" by metonymy to mean any sexy older gentleman?
but i feel so ooooooooold. maybe it's tumblr, maybe i'm a born pedobear who knows, but seriously. puyi's gf is younger than us. um. there used to be a point that my saying "i would tap that" about a 39-year-old invited "old enough to be your dad" comparisons, but at some point i became an adult idk. pep is considerably more sexy as a coach than as a player though js. maybe it was the hair in the 80s/90's?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

XDD

hey, I thought Puyi's gf was 23? I AM NOT THAT OLD YET. but anyway haha yeah I think I just like the way silver fox sounds. silver fox silver fox silver fox~ and Pep is definitely sexier now. he has aged like a fine wine. mmhmm. (in my ~research for this fic I discovered that the reason Pep is usually so well-dressed is that his partner's family runs a clothing shop. HE DOES NOT DRESS HIMSELF. she makes those critical decisions for him. um I have to say I kind of approve. footballers dressing themselves inevitably leads to sartorial tragedy.)

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

lmao i thought she was 20

omg so nervous for liverpool today

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

here is the prologue of pepe's book. written by iker, of course.

aljfskfjdsklfjdsklfjdsklfj

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

siiiiiiiii unamadridista over at conlaroja translated some of it. BUT I WANT VICTOR'S EPILOGUE OKAY, IT BETTER BE MORE FUNNY THAN THIS. (I feel like Iker is um. well, I know everybody loves him? but he's not very entertaining most of the time.)

lalalalala can't hear you talking about Liverpool! or the Barcelona game which I am much more stressed about! oh fuck I didn't bake anything today fuuuuuuuuuuuuu they better not lose!

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

SHE'S 21

DAMN una is fast, i just saw this last night

why are you stressed about barca, i have faith in victor to keep a clean sheet, yes i do



omgggggg our third away kits are gorgeous

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

FUCK OUR LIVES

idk I'm just way more emotionally involved with Barça. like, if Liverpool or AC Milan lose I'll be kind of annoyed but if Barça loses I get sulky and pissy and the bad mood lasts for hours. I WANT THEM TO WIN EVERYTHING EVER OKAY. I'm like this with Rafa, too. (though less so right now because he won three Slams and I am thus pretty much okay with his season even if he doesn't win another match till January.)

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

I WANT THEM TO WIN EVERYTHING TOO. how do you reconcile this with your love of rafa.

i did not know you supported milan! this way you can keep loving ibra, that's good bb.

no i get it i think i'm more invested with lfc right now just because of all the off-pitch shenanigans/drama going on over there, i feel like they "need" me more haha. basically i love football sfm. i don't want to have to choose between my clubs though. i donut appreciate all the people sipping the NT haterate lately though. i can't tell if people dislike spain, or dislike spain fangirls, or how you can tell the difference between fans and fangirls short of making like the inquisition and grilling someone about players and positions and history and tactics, but seriously, is this necessary?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

haha you mean because Rafa's a RM fan? lol tbh when I started getting into football I did investigate RM first because they were Rafa's team, but I just. I cannot. they are not for me. and then there was Barcelona. ~grabbyhands~ plus Rafa's uncle played for Barça so really he should be a Barcelona fan.

lol when I say "support Milan" I really mean "support Zlatan." I barely know anyone else on that team. it's a completely shallow thing. I would probably get more into it if Nesta ever stopped being such a fucking pissy bitch and would actually make up with Zlatan, but whatever. I will hold out for the inevitable transfer drama that will just as inevitably end with Maxwell following Zlatan to their new home. even though I will miss him at Barça. ;_;

is there NT haterade going on? haven't seen it, but I guess that's not unusual, haha. idk, I get really annoyed at people who want to be assholes about how they're real fans and other people who don't love the team their way are clearly just doing it wrong. it's stupid. hell, I'd say I'm a fangirl, not a fan. to me that distinction is just a way of putting girls down because the "girly" way of loving something is clearly the "wrong" way. whatever, I don't see how me liking a team because I think the players are pretty or I like the storylines the team builds is inferior to somebody else liking a team because they score a lot of goals. they're different criteria but neither is inherently better. it doesn't mean I care less about the team than Fan XYZ who watches "for the sport". reminds me of all the subtle ways that our culture conditions us to put down anything that's coded as "female". like, you would look down on a woman reading a romance novel when you wouldn't look down on a man reading a thriller. it's not like one is better than the other except that one is associated with women so it's got cooties or something. ugh. /rant, sorry.

[mardia.livejournal.com]

HEEE. Here you go. Nobody seems to have the actual clip, or know the context.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

AWESOMENESS! I wonder if this was from when the pope came to Barcelona and gay rights activists staged a kiss-in to protest? I don't know anyone who watches Crackovia regularly, or I'd ask.

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

MAXWELL LEAVE NOOOOOOOO
imma need a minute here.
but i dunno if abidal has completely nailed down the left back position at this point. certainly not the way dani owns the right. hmmmm.


i don't like how people sometimes complain about fangirls giving women in football a bad name. and by "people," i don't mean anyone in particular, i couldn't name any names but i think it's fair to say it's a very widespread general sentiment that girls who climbed aboard the bandwagon for, say, xabi's beard or bojan's guns need to gtfo. but since when was being dumb grounds for being expelled from fandom? idgi. i don't get why all women's behavior should be judged on the basis of a few women's behavior. it smacks of the same sentiment as calling barack obama "a credit to his race." so i totally agree with you about things coded as female being inherently less valuable.

[tabacoychanel.livejournal.com]

OMG ARE YOU WATCHING THE GAME RN
THE HYMN KILLS ME EVERY TIME