Pep Guardiola cries with laughter when the Italian legend tells him he “ruined football” and damaged his career for “four years.”
Former Italy striker Luca Toni had a funny matter to discuss with his former teammate Pep Guardiola when the pair met up recently.
The two former Brescia players met for dinner with fellow club icon Roberto Baggio, and during the meeting, Toni filmed himself blaming Guardiola for leaving him without a club after making the 'false nine' popular.
Turning the camera towards him and the laughing Manchester City manager, he said in Italian: “Pep, you ruined football.”
“With the false nine I couldn't find a team for four years. Seriously,” he continued, and the three of them laughed at the conversation. “Can you say you only used the false nine with Messi (at Barcelona)?
“Do you even like centre-forwards?”
However, Guardiola didn't have his claim, mentioning a certain Premier League Golden Boot winner.
“I got it, (Erling) Haaland, 60 goals,” he smiled. “With that striker we won the treble, but the central forwards must be good! Understand?”
Toni responded: “Okay, but enough about the false nine.
“Big center forwards are better!”
Guardiola is known for his use of the false nine tactic, which involves placing a player further back than a traditional striker to create unpredictability and destabilize defenses.
This was the case at Manchester City after the departure of Sergio Agüero in 2021, but it changed when Haaland arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2022, and Guardiola put the Norwegian over the top to be his bagman.
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But his influence saw the false nine used throughout European football, sometimes leaving classic central forwards like Toni in a difficult situation.
The former Italian striker, who remains the fourth-highest scoring Italian player of all time, played under Guardiola at Brescia from 2001 to 2002.
He then played for Palermo, Fiorentina and Bayern Munich, as well as Rome, Genoa and Juventus.
His final years were spent at Al Nassr, Fiorentina and Verona, before retiring in 2016.
Toni scored 324 goals in all competitions, with 659 appearances and 306 goals at club level, and 47 appearances and 16 goals for Italy.
