Barcelona hail return of ‘legend’ Xavi as coach
BARCELONA: Barcelona’s new coach Xavi Hernandez is due to arrive in Spain with the legendary midfielder facing an immense challenge to restore the fallen Catalan giants to their former glory. The Spaniard left Camp Nou to play for Qatari club Al Sadd in 2015, after making 767 appearances for Barcelona, with eight La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues among his 25 trophies.
“It’s time to come home. Welcome, Xavi,” Barca tweeted in the early hours of Saturday. “It wasn’t goodbye, it was see you later,” it wrote, along with a video montage of the player’s departure in 2015. Video footage on Twitter showed the 41-yearold with his family at Doha airport, hours after the announcement of the deal with Al Sadd, for his flight back to his homeland to come to the rescue of the club he joined as a youngster.
Barcelona said in a statement it had reached an agreement with Xavi to become first team coach for the rest of the current season and two more seasons, replacing Ronald Koeman. “It is expected that Xavi will arrive in Barcelona this weekend and that on Monday 8 November his presentation as new FC Barcelona first team coach will take place in an event open to the public at Camp Nou,” it said.
Nicknamed the “Maquina” (the Machine), Xavi is widely considered one of the club’s greatest ever players and there is huge excitement about his potential as a coach after his influence on the iconic Barca team managed by Pep Guardiola. His passing style was seen as the embodiment of Guardiola’s “tiki-taka” team that won the treble in 2009.
Barcelona’s attempt to appoint Xavi as Koeman’s successor had been held up on Friday over his Al Sadd release clause, with Xavi and Barca considering splitting the payment to complete the deal. Al Sadd said Barca had agreed to pay the clause in Xavi’s contract, which is reportedly set at around five million euros ($5.8 million).