A lot of you reading this may not know Pep. You hear “Pep” and immediately think “Boys.” You may even think we’re asking for a Pepsi and have a bit of a stutter, or we’re too lazy to use both syllables when asking for salt’s partner in crime. But alas, we are not.
The “Pep” we’re referring to here is Josep “Pep” Guardiola, current manager of Manchester City Football Club, aka the arch-rivals of the other Manchester team…the one most Americans are at least vaguely familiar with.
If you’ve spent any time at all watching La Liga (Spain) or Bundesliga (Germany) soccer games in the past ten years or so, you’ve no doubt see a whip-thin, balding man on the sidelines animatedly conducting his players from the sideline, inevitable in his uniforms of choice: a slim, perfectly tailored suit, or his version of a three-piece, a suit and tie with a sweater of the shirt.
In a world of Beckhams and Ronaldos, who deservedly and constantly are named among the best-dressed men in the world, Pep is unique in that he’s not even a player anymore. There are A LOT of stylish athletes, from the NBA to the NFL, but rarely do our athletes come close to the style chops of European footballers, and Pep is far and away the reigning king of sideline style (with former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho nipping at his Aldo heels.)
So if you’re tired of looking to LeBron or Cristiano, or, dare we say, David for fashion tips of the sports world, maybe turn on a soccer match every once in a while and learn a thing or two.
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