‘Welcome Home, Legend’—Sergio Busquets Takes First Step on Path Forged by Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique

The Catalan club has routinely called players back for over a century.

Sergio Busquets is heading back to Camp Nou. | Rich Storry/Getty Images

Sergio Busquets is a new assistant coach with Barcelona B ahead of the 2026–27 season, his first job since a 17-year playing career ended with Inter Miami’s MLS Cup victory in 2025.

Busquets is currently working through obtaining coaching qualifications that will enable him to become a manager, and will form part of the staff led by ex-Barça right back Juliano Belletti.

The two-time Champions League winner was about to turn 27 in July 2015 when he openly confirmed his desire “to be a coach” in the future. At that point, Busquets still had “many years” on the pitch left ahead of him. But with that glittering career now behind him, the time has come to embark on the next chapter of his life at the age of 38.

Busquets himself made 25 appearances for Barcelona B in the formative stages of his career and the team provides an important stepping stone for both players and coaches.

A year leading Barcelona B marked the start of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career in 2007. From there, he was promoted to first-team boss in 2008, replacing Frank Rijkaard, and took Busquets with him from the reserves into the senior squad.

Guardiola guided Barcelona to a sextuple in his first season in 2008–09 and by the time he left Manchester City at the end of May had won 41 trophies in 17 seasons.

Luis Enrique was the manager who succeeded Guardiola in charge of Barcelona B, although his path to becoming one of the greatest coaches of his generation wasn’t quite so linear. After three years, Enrique moved to Roma, then took a year out before joining Celta Vigo.

He returned to Camp Nou in 2014 and delivered in his first season the club’s first La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble since Guardiola. His subsequent achievements at Paris Saint-Germain since 2022 speak for themselves.

Former Barcelona players returning to the club to become manager is common, with Xavi Hernández the most recent example until being fired at the end of 2023–24.

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Ex-Barcelona Players Who Became Manager

Pep Guardiola was a Barcelona player long before becoming manager. | Matthew Ashton/EMPICS/Getty Images

	As Player	As Manager
Billy Lambe (player-manager)	1912	1912
Jack Alderson (player-manager)	1913	1913
Jack Greenwell	1912–1916	1913–1923; 1931–1933
Romà Forns	1903–1913	1926–1929
Franz Platko	1923–1930	1934–1935; 1955–1956
José Planas	1921–1927	1940–1941
Ramón Guzmán	1928–1935	1941–1942
Juan José Nogués	1930–1936; 1939–1941	1942–1944
Josep Samitier	1919–1932	1944–1947
Enrique Fernández	1935–1936	1947–1950
Ramón Llorens	1926–1938	1950
Domènec Balmanya	1935–1937; 1941–1944	1956–1958
Luis Miró	1939–1943	1961
László Kubala	1951–1961	1961–1963; 1980
José Gonzalvo	1944–1950	1963
César Rodríguez	1939–1955	1963–1964
Salvador Artigas	1932–1933	1967–1969
Josep Seguer	1942–1957	1969
Lucien Muller	1965–1968	1978–1979
Joaquim Rifé	1963–1976	1979–1980
José Luis Romero (interim)	1970–1971	1983
Carles Rexach	1965–1981	1988; 1991; 1996; 2001–2002
Johan Cruyff	1973–1978	1988–1996
Antonio de la Cruz (interim)	1972–1979	2003
Pep Guardiola	1990–2001	2008–2012
Luis Enrique	1996–2004	2014–2017
Ernesto Valverde	1988–1990	2017–2020
Ronald Koeman	1989–1995	2020–2021
Sergi Barjuán (interim)	1993–2002	2021
Xavi Hernández	1998–2015	2021–2024

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