Barcaready toplayAnt-y football
Valverde favourite for the hotseat
IF you were at Hampden for the UEFA Cup Final in 2007 there’s a decent chance that you saw Barcelona’s next coach at work.
But did you know he’s always had a bit of a secret yearning to do his job at Ibrox? And he loves Scotland and used to find excuses to head over our way. Love him already?
Okay – his nickname is The Ant, he really doesn’t have the greatest record when it comes to cup finals, he was once chosen by the great Johan Cruyff to join the playing ranks at Barca and he was born Ernesto Valverde Tejedor.
His moment in the sun at Hampden, albeit it was raining stair-rods that night, ended in heartbreak for his Espanyol team as they pushed Sevilla to extra time and penalties despite being reduced to 10 men in the 68th minute.
He’s also managed Valencia, Villarreal, and won a hatful of trophies in Greece while in charge of Olympiakos. Right now he’s the guy who brought Athletic Bilbao their first trophy for 31 years.
Valverde is the candidate who has his nose ahead of the pack to replace Luis Enrique who’s quitting in the summer.
In fact in the past the 53-year-old has twice already had Nou Camp powerbrokers talking to him about taking over.
More than that he carries a different reputation than the other leading candidate, Jorge Sampaoli, the streetfighter Argentine who follows a Pep Guardiola football bible at Sevilla.
I interviewed Valverde, who got his Ant moniker because he was a hardworking but diminutive winger, when he was about to head for Hampden in 2007.
He told me: “When I was a player and my team were involved in Europe I always used to hope the UEFA draw would pair us with Rangers so I could experience the noise and fervour of playing a competitive match in Scotland.
“However, I never had a competitive match in Scotland, Ireland, England or Wales and it got to the extent I simply decided to go to Scotland on a driving holiday instead.
“So a UEFA Cup Final at Hampden, a mythical stadium, is an extra pleasure.”
Or at least it was in prospect. Espanyol couldn’t get over the line that night in Glasgow and if there’s anything that hangs over Valverde it’s whether he’s got it in him to be a serial winner.
As a player he was part of that remarkable 1988 UEFA Cup Final where Espanyol led 3-0 over three quarters of what was then a two-leg showpiece, led on penalties but then still lost to Germans Bayer Leverkusen.
He was always on the fringes for Barcelona when it came to the trophy shakedowns – unused sub when the Cruyff team won the 1990 Copa Final against Real Madrid, same thing the previous year when Barca beat Sampdoria to win the Cup-Winners’ Cup.
But Valverde could make a real impact in the Nou Camp dugout.
Whether he wants to manage a team which is in huge transition, which no longer has Carles Puyol and Xavi and where Andres Iniesta is moving into the twilight of his career, remains to be seen.
If he says no then you’d imagine Sampaoli will get the nod. But for the moment The Ant is leading the race to get one of world football’s most coveted and most demanding jobs.
I wanted to experience the noise of a playing a competitive match in Scotland