20. Guardiola, Mourinho and Del Bosque: Three Different Leadership and Personal Branding Styles

The present study aims to relate to the importance of the concepts of leadership and personal branding, focusing on the three most renowned coaches in recent years: Vicente del Bosque, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. All three are highly successful figures in their respective careers, but they have different styles of leadership, sports management and personality, which results in, each case, a personal brand that is unique and different. To carry out this assessment, the concepts of leadership and personal branding relating to the sports field were analysed and specifically the implications on coaches and managers. Therefore, the career of each of these three coaches was studied and comprehensively evaluated, to identify their leadership and personal brand singularities, using a methodology based on two steps: a state-of-the-art review of the concepts described and applied to Vicente del Bosque, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola and a field investigation that supported and gave significance to the state of art reviewed and to the conclusions derived from this study. The research concludes that these coaches are unrivalled in relation to their leadership and personal branding style: Jose Mourinho as a tactician and motivator of players, prioritizing short-term results; Pep Guardiola in strategic dimensions, ongoing learning and emphasizing the importance of aesthetic soccer; and Vicente del Bosque in creating a team with a good working environment and interpersonal skills, highlighting the unity and loyalty of the team above and beyond the short-term results. The limitations of leadership style and personal branding of these three trainers were also highlighted in the present research.