Pere Guardiola is a Spanish sports agent and president of Girona FC. Former founder of Media Base Sports and now a shareholder in Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), he has represented several high-profile players and managers, including Luis Suárez, Andrés Iniesta, Thiago Alcántara and Pep Guardiola. His career illustrates the evolution of the sports agent profession in modern football.
Last updated: 12/06/2026
Pere Guardiola has built his career in professional football over more than twenty-five years. Over that period, he has established himself as both a football agent, a shareholder in a major international agency and the president of a Spanish club.
Less publicised than his older brother Pep Guardiola, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers in football history, Pere Guardiola remains an influential figure in European football. His career, from a marketing role at Nike to founding Media Base Sports and later becoming president of Girona FC, perfectly illustrates the versatility that has become essential in the football agency business.
Let us now look at Pere Guardiola’s career, the players and managers he has represented, and FIFA’s regulations regarding his unusual profile.
Pere Guardiola is a Spanish sports agent and businessman, the brother of Pep Guardiola, and chairman of the board of directors of Girona FC. He is particularly recognised for his influence within European football.
Having come through the ranks at Gimnàstic de Manresa, he played amateur football for around fifteen years before hanging up his boots in 1997 to begin a professional career with Nike.
Pere Guardiola Sala was born on 16 July 1976 in Santpedor, Catalonia. After studying electromechanics and completing his amateur playing career, he moved into marketing, which opened the door to the sports industry.
In 1997, at just 21 years old, he joined Nike as a sports marketing manager.
For twelve years, he worked within the brand’s football department. His responsibilities quickly extended far beyond traditional account management.
He helped identify emerging talent, managed relationships with FC Barcelona and Spanish national team players, and oversaw the global logistics of two of the brand’s biggest stars, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. He eventually became Football Manager for Spain and Portugal.
This experience gave him an in-depth understanding of contracts, sports marketing and the football transfer market, while allowing him to build an extensive network both in Spain and internationally.
In 2009, Pere Guardiola decided to launch his own representation agency, Media Base Sports. He founded the company alongside Jaume Roures, an influential figure in Spanish sports media, who held 45% of the shares, while Guardiola retained the remaining 55%.
Media Base Sports had a clear strategy from the outset. Its objective was to identify and develop promising young Spanish and Portuguese players, offering comprehensive support covering sporting, legal and tax matters.
The agency quickly established itself as one of the most influential football agencies in Spain and Portugal.
Through Media Base Sports, Pere Guardiola quickly established himself as a leading football agent in Spain and Portugal. The agency represented numerous professional players and managers, with a strategy focused on long-term career development that also covered image rights, commercial agreements and post-playing careers.
Guardiola gradually built an extensive network among European clubs, particularly in La Liga and the Premier League, relying on strong relationships with key figures in the market and certain partner clubs, including Girona FC, which forms part of the City Football Group ecosystem.
His low-profile approach, combined with an extensive network across the football industry, enabled him to become an influential figure in the transfer market while simultaneously developing projects linked to the wider professional football industry.
From 2015 onwards, Pere Guardiola became financially involved in Girona FC, a Catalan club then competing in Spain’s second division. He personally covered a deficit estimated at €4.5 million (approximately £3.9 million), allowing him to gradually assume a significant role in the club’s governance.
In 2017, the City Football Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi-based consortium that owns Manchester City, and the Girona Football Group, an entity led by Pere Guardiola, each acquired 44.3% of the club’s shares. Together, the two groups controlled 88.6% of Girona FC through an investment estimated at €7 million (approximately £6 million).
The relationship between Pere Guardiola and the City Football Group attracted particular attention given that his older brother Pep Guardiola has managed Manchester City since 2016. The close links between the two structures have regularly fuelled debate regarding potential conflicts of interest in professional football.
In 2020, Pere Guardiola was appointed chairman of the board of directors of Girona FC. Under his leadership, the club achieved several notable milestones despite being relegated at the end of the 2025–26 season:
At the beginning of 2021, Pere Guardiola sold Media Base Sports to a Chinese company and left the agency he had founded twelve years earlier. In December 2021, he announced his arrival at Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), a Dutch agency founded by Kees Vos, as a shareholder and strategic partner.
At the time, SEG already represented more than 600 clients across 25 countries, making it one of the largest sports management agencies in the world.
By joining SEG, Pere Guardiola transferred his entire client portfolio and placed his network at the service of the agency’s international expansion, particularly in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and South America.
Sports Entertainment Group’s stated ambition is to become one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment agencies.
For aspiring agents, this development illustrates a broader structural trend within the industry: the gradual consolidation of independent agencies into larger groups capable of providing international and multi-disciplinary services to their clients.
| Period | Organisation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–2009 | Nike | Sports Marketing Manager |
| 2009–2021 | Media Base Sports | Founder & Lead Agent |
| Since 2020 | Girona FC | Chairman of the Board of Directors |
| Since 2022 | Sports Entertainment Group (SEG) | Shareholder & Agent |
Throughout his time at Media Base Sports and later at Sports Entertainment Group, Pere Guardiola built one of the most impressive client portfolios in modern football. His network enabled him to establish himself as a leading representative of Catalan and Spanish talent, supporting world-class players both at the beginning of their careers and during some of football’s most high-profile transfers.
Luis Suárez was involved in one of the defining deals of Pere Guardiola’s career as an agent. In July 2014, Guardiola negotiated the Uruguayan striker’s transfer from Liverpool to FC Barcelona for approximately €81 million (around £70 million).
At the time of the move, Suárez was serving a four-month suspension imposed by FIFA following his bite on Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Despite the circumstances, Guardiola successfully completed one of the biggest transfers of the summer.
Pere Guardiola represented Andrés Iniesta throughout his career at FC Barcelona, where the Spanish midfielder won four UEFA Champions League titles and nine La Liga titles.
When Iniesta decided to leave Barça in 2018 after twenty-two years at the club, Guardiola structured and finalised his move to Vissel Kobe in Japan.
In 2013, Pere Guardiola arranged Thiago Alcántara’s move from FC Barcelona to Bayern Munich. A graduate of La Masia, Thiago had struggled for regular playing time due to competition from Iniesta and Xavi.
The transfer was completed for approximately €25 million (approximately £21 million) and allowed Thiago to establish himself as one of the Bundesliga’s leading midfielders before his move to Liverpool in 2020, which was also handled by Guardiola.
Developed at Manchester City, Brahim Díaz joined Real Madrid in January 2019 before spending three consecutive seasons on loan at AC Milan between 2020 and 2023, where he gradually established himself as a regular starter.
Pere Guardiola supported him through these different stages by optimising his playing time and sporting development, whilst maintaining a relationship of trust with a club as demanding as Real Madrid, even though their collaboration has since come to an end.
The relationship between Pep and Pere Guardiola extends beyond family ties, as Pere also serves as the Spanish manager’s official agent. He has overseen Pep’s career since his time at Barcelona B in 2007 and throughout his spells at FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.
Every contract negotiation with those clubs was conducted by Pere, who became the preferred point of contact for sporting directors whenever discussions involved appointing or extending Pep Guardiola.
In May 2026, following the official announcement of Pep Guardiola’s departure from Manchester City after ten seasons at the club, it was once again Pere Guardiola who publicly confirmed discussions with Al-Nassr, underlining his central role in managing his brother’s career.
Pere Guardiola’s career path raises several regulatory questions that are of direct interest to candidates preparing for the FIFA Football Agent Exam. His profile as both a players’ agent and club executive sits at the heart of the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR), which came into force in January 2023.
The FFAR notably governs:
Pere Guardiola’s career perfectly illustrates the evolution of the football agent profession in the modern game. Having moved from sports marketing into player and manager representation before taking on the leadership of a professional club, he has established himself as an influential figure within European football.
His hybrid profile, combining agent, entrepreneur and executive, makes him a particularly relevant example of the economic, regulatory and strategic challenges shaping the modern football industry.
