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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has challenged FIFA Club World Cup champion Bayern Munich to face his former team Barcelona from 2008-09 to determine which team is better.
Bayern beat Liga MX Tigres 1-0 on Thursday to become world champions and establish themselves in history alongside Barça as the only club to hold all six of the top trophies available at the same time.
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Hansi Flick’s team won the Bundesliga, DFB Pokal and the Champions League at the end of last season, adding the German Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup this campaign.
Guardiola’s Barça recorded the same feat in 2009, albeit with the Spanish equivalents, becoming the only team at that time to have all six trophies and still, due to the calendar affected by the coronavirus, the only team to win all six in the same calendar year.
“Congratulations to the entire Bayern family on their incredible success in winning six titles,” Guardiola, who managed the German club before joining City in 2016, said in a message on social media.
“I am very proud. But I would like to tell Hansi that you are the second team to win six titles in a row. Before it was another team, it was Barcelona, so maybe he can call [Lionel] Messi and company and we can play for the seventh title. Tell me when and where and we’ll be there! “
Messi scored the winning goal in the 2009 Club World Cup final when Barça made history with a team that also included Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dani Alves.
Three members of that team remain at Camp Nou: Messi, Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets, although many others have since retired.
City are hoping to sign Messi and meet him again with Guardiola when his contract expires in the summer.
Sources have told ESPN that they will wait until March or April before making their move after coming close to signing him last August, only for Barca to reject their request to leave.
City could do better than Bayern and Barça in theory, due to the extra trophy on offer in England. They remain in the League Cup and FA Cup this season and are top of the league.
Plus, they’re still in the Champions League, so they could potentially win a quadruple, with three more trophies on offer next season if that happens.
