Al Sadd makes official the departure agreement of DT Xavi Hernández, bound for FC Barcelona

Emblem of the tap game that raised the FC Barcelona, Xavi Hernández is about to return home to take charge of the team of your life on a mission to rebuild a group in free fall and put Barça back in the forefront of the world.

After days of intense negotiations, finally it was the Qatari Al-Sadd who announced that he will let his coach go, after the payment of his millionaire clause. Thus, Xavi will be able to help Barça to get out of the “critical stage” in which it finds itself, as Al-Sadd himself wrote in some friendly farewell tweets.

But, hours after the Qataris’ announcement, FC Barcelona had not yet spoken.

“The statement is from Al-Saad and not from Barça, it has not yet been made official”, reiterated the interim coach, Sergi Barjuan, this Friday at the press conference prior to Saturday’s duel against Celta. “Then We are going to wait for the club to make it official if there is a statement ”He added cautiously before the numerous questions about Xavi.

The last details are not yet closed so that the great Barça ex-midfielder arrives, finally, to a position for which he always showed his enthusiasm, the same with which a large part of the culé fans will welcome him after the dismissal of Ronald Koeman last week.

After leaving Barça In 2015, Xavi left for the Qatari club, where he ended his playing career in 2019 and he started as a coach. At the controls of Al-Sadd he won a league, a national Cup and the Qatar Super Cup.

Emblem of the game of touch, which he learned at La Masía, and refined under the command of Pep Guardiola (2008-2012), Xavi did not hesitate to apply these principles in Qatar.

‘Have the ball’

“The most important, the most beautiful thing about football is having the ball and going on the attack and dominating the game with the ball ”, said Xavi in ​​a master class on the coaches portal The Coaches Voice, about his Al-Sadd.

From his post in Qatar, Xavi, the second man who has played the most games for Barça, only surpassed by Lionel Messi, he had one eye on the Barça club, which he never lost sight of.

Contacted in January 2020 to replace Ernesto Valverde and the following summer to take over from Quique Setién, Xavi had so far rejected all approaches for not seeing himself prepared yet, although he always showed his desire to coach Barça one day.

“I received a proposal from Barcelona, ​​but I did not accept it because I think it is not the right time for me. It’s a bit early for me ”, said the Catalan in January 2020, although he reiterated that it was his dream.

The 4 points that Xavi Hernández must consider to revive FC Barcelona

The right moment seems to have come now, at 41 years old and with the team in serious financial and sporting difficulties, after the hard blow that Messi left this summer.

“I have always said that Xavi will train Barça one day. He is a person who lives for football, he belongs to Barça and has it as a priority objective in his life ”, said last Friday the Barça president, Joan Laporta.

The Barcelona president recalled that he has been in constant contact with Xavi, despite the fact that the former World Champion had been closer to a rival candidacy in the elections last March.

Young team

Supported by his aura of Barça legend, which Koeman also wore, Xavi will have to face the complicated task of rebuilding a team weighed down by the delicate economic situation of the club, which limits the possibility of signing, and above all because of the large gap left by Messi.

His first mission will be to return Barcelona to the top positions of LaLiga, where he is now ninth, and the challenge, even greater, of getting the team into the second round of the Champions League, after the two initial 3-0 thrashes against Bayern Munich and Benfica, which greatly hampered their chances.

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To make it, must rely on the new golden generation of the Barça school Captained by Pedri, Ansu Fati or Gavi, and joined by other precocious talents such as Frenkie de Jong or Sergiño Dest.

Xavi will certainly be able to count on his task with the help of his former battle mates Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba or Sergio Busquets, last survivors of a Barça that dominated the world and now must ensure the transition.

If Koeman laid the foundations for the post-Messi era, now it is Xavi’s turn to definitively turn this page and write a new one. (D)