Barcelona are steadily moving closer to naming club legend Xavi as their new head coach. According to Fabrizio Romano, the Spanish giants consider the appointment to be a near-formality at this stage, with the 41-year-old’s contract ready to sign.
Barça president Joan Laporta relieved former head coach Ronald Koeman of his duties in late October, and the club’s board swifty identified the Al-Sadd manager as the leading candidate to take over.
Barcelona to Name Xavi as New Manager in the Coming Days
Al-Sadd Manager Believes he is Ready for the Challenge at the Nou Camp
Despite having previously harboured reservations as to whether he feels Xavi is prepared to make the step up from managing in Qatar to managing a troubled Barcelona side in La Liga, Joan Laporta has come around to the idea of hiring the former midfielder as Koeman’s replacement.
Having been learning his trade as manager of Al-Sadd since May 2019, Xavi himself feels ready to take on the challenge of becoming the new Barcelona manager, despite the difficulties the Catalan club are in both on and off the pitch.
The former Spain international in not interested in managing any other side apart from his boyhood club, which has allowed negotiations between the two parties to progress smoothly, despite Al-Sadd’s desire to keep him.
Barcelona are currently ninth in the Spanish top-flight, and find themselves six points off the top four after only 11 matches of the new season.
Relationship With Experienced Players to be Key for Xavi’s Barcelona
In his early 40s, Xavi may be surprised by the speed at which the Barcelona job has become available to him in his coaching career. Having finished his playing career in Qatar, the Al-Sadd job was his first as a manager.
If he does join Barcelona in the coming days as expected, then Xavi will become the manager of a team which is markedly different to the one he played in, but does still contain some of his former team-mates.
The likes of Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets both played with Xavi at the Nou Camp, and would be expected to buy into his methods as a coach in order to turn the club back into a major European force.
