1971 Born 18 January in Santpedor, Barcelona

1984 Aged 13, Guardiola joins the famous La Masia academy before being spotted early on by Johan Cruyff during a youth team fixture

1990 Having made his way up through the Barça ranks, 'Pep' makes his debut for the senior side against Cádiz CF, where he plays as a defensive midfielder

1991 Established as a regular in the Barcelona side, Guardiola plays a key part in the team's domestic and European Cup successes. Cruyff's 'dream team' would go on to retain the La Liga title for the next two seasons

1992 Guardiola captains Spain's Olympic football team to gold at the Barcelona Games and wins the Bravo Award, for which he was recognised as the world's best player under the age of 21

1996 Despite fourth and third place finishes in La Liga, Guardiola remains a fixture in the first team and is hailed as one of the world's great young talents

1998 The introduction of Luis Figo and others, coupled with the loss of Cruyff as manager sees the club receive bids of around 300m pesetas for Guardiola, which are rejected until he eventually signs a new contract to keep him at Barcelona until 2001

1998-2000 Injury and the resulting surgery cause him to miss Spain's World Cup campaign and negatively affect his displays in La Liga for a trophyless Barça

2001 Announces his desire to leave the Camp Nou after 17 years in April before playing his final game against Celta Vigo. His next move sees him travel to Italy, where he spends a season at Brescia before signing for Roma

2001-2003 Guardiola makes four appearances for Roma, after serving a four-match ban for testing positive for Nandrolone. (He is later cleared twice, in 2007 and 2009)

2003-2005 After an unhappy stay in Italy Guardiola follows Gabriel Batistuta to Qatar, after turning down several English clubs, including Manchester United

2005-2006 After moving to Mexico for a brief spell with Dorados de Sinaloa, he hangs up his boots at the end of the season

2007 Pep spends a year away from the game before returning as manager of Barcelona's B side with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. The pair lead the team to promotion in their first year in charge

2008 Barcelona's president, Joan Laporta, announces that Guardiola is the man to replace Frank Rijkaard as first-team coach. An exodus of stars such as Ronaldinho, Deco, Lilian Thuram and eventually Eto'o mean the new manager can work with a blank canvas

2009 Guardiola's new-look side win not only the domestic title but the Copa del Rey and Champions League – the first Spanish club to do so. Barça go on to win every trophy they compete for in the calendar year 2009, including the Fifa Club World Cup, for the first time in their history

2010 For his successes he is rewarded with a one-year contract extension, which will keep him at the club until June 2011. Barcelona win a second successive La Liga title and Guardiola's seventh trophy as manager but lose out in the Champions League to José Mourinho's Internazionale

2010-11 Guardiola leads Barça to a fifth straight win in as many El Clásico matches but suffers his first defeat against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. After securing the La Liga title once again Barça beat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley to win yet another Champions League title

2011-12 Having added the Uefa Super Cup to his trophy cabinet following a 2-0 win over Porto, Guardiola is named Fifa world coach of the year in January 2012. Out of the La Liga title race and the Copa del Rey, the 41-year-old announces he will leave the club at the end of the season

2012 Decides to take a one-year sabbatical in New York but continues to be a target for several of the world's top clubs

2013 Guardiola is announced as the new manager of Bayern Munich for the start of the 2013-14 season, with Jupp Heynckes set to retire