Joško Gvardiol

Written by Alex Holiga for Telesport:

Everybody loves the Little Pep and that is a fact. “He’s loved like you can’t believe,” Pep Guardiola, or the Big Pep, recently said. And why wouldn’t he be? At 22, he’s one of the best defenders in the world, but also a remarkably down-to-earth guy who never lets fame get to his head. Only six years ago Josko Gvardiol contemplated quitting football altogether and joining his father, Tihomir, in selling fish at the Dolac marketplace in Zagreb. Instead, he took a mental map that a family friend made for him on a piece of paper and hung it on the wall of his room. “SUCCESS,” it said in capital letters, while three other words were highlighted: “discipline”, “top club” and “plan A”. And what about the plan B? “There was none left at that point,” he says.