ONE man’s influence, who wouldn’t even be in the dugouts of either Germany or Argentina, will hang heavy on the World Cup final at the Maracana Stadium on Sunday.

That man is current Bayern Munich and former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is the man who nurtured Lionel Messi. He made him a global superstar, unearthing a monster of a goal-scorer when he shifted him from the wing onto the centre of the attack.

That marked a successful period for Barca and Messi. Two Champions League titles came in four seasons with Messi winning four consecutive Ballon d’Or crowns.

Not only was it Messi but his Argentina team-mate Javier Mascherano who owes a lot to the Spanish tactician.

When Guardiola signed Mascherano at Barca, he played him at centre-back and there he fostered his ability to play the ball from the back.

Now, Mascherano passes the ball both short and long and it is astonishing to note that he leads the chart of most passes in the tournament with 509.

Guardiola’s Barca played in their traditional tiki-taka style — a possession-based short passing game.

That laid the foundations for Spain’s era of dominance of international football that saw them win back-to-back European Championships in 2008 and 2010 along with the last World Cup in South Africa.

That era of success coincided with Barca’s reign of dominance of European football.

Until Bayern found a way to counter it and thrashed Barca 7-0 in the semi-finals of the Champions League two seasons ago with an improved and more direct version of the tiki-taka. This was also possession-based football but with more direct attacking rather than going in circles.

Bayern won the Champions League in 2013 with Guardiola joining them the following season.

The Spaniard infused his tiki-taka style with the German philosophy and that saw Bayern wrap up the Bundesliga title in March.

It wasn’t so effective in the Champions League, though. Bayern’s German efficiency had been neutered playing that style and it was proved as eventual champions Real Madrid thrashed them 5-0 in the semis.

“It’s true that Guardiola has a certain influence in our team. It includes a lot of Bayern players and they bring some of their own style,” Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthaus told a press conference last week.

“Guardiola won so many trophies at Barcelona that he had a huge impact. He took some of his Barcelona philosophy to Bayern and, as Germany have so many Bayern players, there is a touch of Guardiola in the team.”

Germany had six Bayern players in their starting line-up during their 7-1 thrashing of Brazil in the semi-finals.

Joachim Loew’s tactical flexibility has allowed Germany to master the tiki-taka and create its own brand of football which might see them begin an era of dominance in a similar vein to that of Spain.

“We want possession but that is only one factor in our game,” Loew said recently. “We want to keep the ball low, we want to avoid long and high balls and we want quick transition. We need to improve our efficiency.”

Otherwise, the occasion will mark the coronation as an all-time football legend of Messi — a player who probably wouldn’t be what he is without Guardiola.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2014