When you think of the defining Pep Guardiola players, it obviously starts with Lionel Messi.
In four years together with Barcelona, they won three LaLiga titles and two Champions League trophies. Messi was the individual genius who took Guardiola's ultra-organized collective to never-before-seen heights. During their time together, there was no question over who was the best player in the world. While they slipped up in LaLiga once and in Europe twice, Messi won the Ballon d'Or in each of the four years he worked with Guardiola.
Who would be next, though? There's Sergio Busquets, a Guardiola-esque avatar at the base of midfield for those great Barca sides. Maybe Xavi or Andres Iniesta, but they both existed in outsized form before and after Guardiola arrived. At Bayern, same goes for the likes of Philipp Lahm, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, who all hit new levels under their new manager but also won the Champions League the year before he came to Germany. Manuel Neuer, perhaps, was the most symbolic Guardiola figure at Bayern, a goalkeeper known and beloved for all of the things other than saving shots.
However, Guardiola has now coached Manchester City for longer than he has either of those clubs, which brings us to this: after Messi, Raheem Sterling has been involved in more goals in all competitions (scored and assisted) under Guardiola than any other player. And that number will remain stuck at 186 for the foreseeable future, as City are set to let Sterling move to Chelsea for a £47.5 million transfer fee any day now.
Yet, Sterling as a defining Guardiola player doesn't feel right, does it? After all, if it were true, would City be willing to let him leave? Still, nothing about Sterling's career really feels right because we'd never really seen anything like him before.