Xavi will be the new coach of Barcelona, Al-Sadd reported via the official channels. The 41-year-old Catalan is the successor to the dismissed Ronald Koeman and will soon sign a multi-year contract at the Camp Nou. Xavi’s contract with Al-Sadd ran until mid-2023. After paying a lump sum of allegedly five million euros, Xavi will return to the old nest, where he spent almost his entire football career, before moving to Qatar in 2015.
Spanish media already reported last week that the club management of los Azulgrana had contacted Xavi’s camp immediately after Koeman’s resignation. “The board of Al-Sadd has reached an agreement on Xavi’s departure to Barcelona after the amount of his departure clause as stated in his contract has been paid,” it said. Xavi is expected to take his brother Óscar and Sergio Alegre with him as assistants. trainers and Iván Torres as physical trainer, thus saying goodbye to Alfred Schreuder and Henrik Larsson, who worked as assistants under Koeman.
After months in the air, Koeman was officially fired by Barcelona in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, after the loss to Rayo Vallecano (1-0). There has been dissatisfaction between chairman Joan Laporta and the Dutchman for some time because of the poor performance of the Catalans. Barcelona currently dangles in ninth place in LaLiga with fifteen points from ten matches and already lost no chance in the Champions League this season against Bayern Munich (0-3) and Benfica (3-0). Koeman was the trainer with the lowest points average (1.96) over his entire working period from August 2020 since Radomir Antic in 2003, who wrote an average of 1.83 to his name at the time.
Related
More sports news