By Adedapo Adesanya
Manchester City Football Club Manager, Mr Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola, has lost his mother, Mrs Dolors Sala Carri, aged 82 to coronavirus.
In a statement on Twitter, the English top flight football outfit said, “The Manchester City family are devastated to report the death today of Pep’s mother Dolors Sala Carrió in Manresa, Barcelona after contracting coronavirus. She was 82 years old.
“Everyone associated with the club sends their most heartfelt sympathy at this most distressing time to Pep, his family and all their friends.”
Dolors was married to Pep’s father, Valenti, and was also mother to the Manchester City manager two older sisters and younger brother Pere, a football agent.
She saw Pep enjoy a hugely successful playing career, mostly with Barcelona, where he won six Spanish titles and the European Cup before he started his coaching career, where he became one of the most successful coaches in the game holding the helm at Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and currently, Manchester City.
The tragic news comes weeks after Mr Guardiola himself made a generous donation of £920,000 (€1 million) to help provide medical equipment in the fight against coronavirus in Spain, which has the second highest rate of the disease in the world.
Globally, cases stands at 1,291,313, while 70,659 deaths have been recorded and 272,235 people have recovered from the disease.
Dipo Olowookere