Will Jordi Cruyff be replaced at FC Barcelona by another former FEF employee?

Can Jordi Cruyff be replaced as sports director of FC Barcelona by another former employee of the Ecuadorian Football Federation? The Dutchman has fulfilled that role at the Catalan club since September 2022. He arrived in Ecuador in 2020 and on January 13 of that year he was presented as the leader “of a process that is going to make us a world soccer power.” Supposedly Cruyff would do that as a coach of the National Team, according to Francisco Egas, president of the FEF.

The coach, who led in China, was hired at the request of the Spanish Antonio Cordón, who on December 30, 2019 was announced by the FEF as its star sports director. But in July 2020 Cruyff resigned without directing any practice and neither did he conduct official or friendly matches. The coronavirus pandemic and confinement prevented the Qatar World Cup qualifiers, which were due to start in March 2020.

Also in July 2020 Cordón withdrew from Ecuafútbol. According to a note from The UncheckSeville portal, “the disagreement (of Cordón) with the FEF does not go through the issue of money, but the leak of his contract ($1.5 million) has generated discontent and that it has been made public, since there was an agreement of confidentiality with Francisco Egas”.

‘He negotiated before leaving’

Cordón clarified upon resigning that “the pandemic defines my march” and that “there is no Betis offer.” But just nine days later he took over as sports director of Betis (Cordón was negotiating with Betis before resigning from the FEF, the Seville newspaper, Sports stadium and The Uncheck).

This Tuesday Cordón informed the Sevilla board of directors that he will leave the Andalusian entity, although “he will continue in his responsibilities, at least, until the end of this season (next May).” Refers the newspaper Brand, from Madrid, that in “his four-year contract (until 2024) there is a clause that indicates that at the end of the third of them Cordón could resign from office. A decision that they do not fully understand.

Heading to Barça?

Probably the reasons that are “not fully understood” can be understood with this heading that reads in Sport, Catalan newspaper, this Tuesday: ‘Antonio Cordón is placed in the sports management of Barça’. It is added in the summary that “according to The Goal of GoalHe has an offer to keep his position, but in the Camp Nou offices”.

in the note of Sport He adds: “Barça could incorporate a new member in the sports management for next season. Antonio Cordón has made his departure from Real Betis official once this season ends (next May), considering that he has finished a cycle ”.

Regarding the probable job destination of Cordón, a former employee of Ecuafútbol, ​​the Catalan media added that “according to the journalist Pedro Riesco in The Goal of Goal (television program), Antonio Cordón would already have a proposal on the table to become the new sporting director of FC Barcelona starting next season”.

Cordon’s ‘Bible’

at the auction Sport He complements in his note that “it is necessary to contextualize that Cordón coincided with Jordi Cruyff in the Ecuadorian Football Federation in 2020” and that “it should be noted that in the Barça professional football organization chart, the entity’s sports director is Jordi Cruyff, who form a tandem with Mateu Alemany, director of football. On the other hand, there is also José Mari Bakero, who acts as director of scouting in Spain”.

And although Cruyff could not even command a training session for Ecuador, Cordón, according to the words of Egas in EL UNIVERSO, on July 9, 2020, did leave a kind of legacy before accepting Sevilla’s proposal. If Cordón leaves, “he will have left us a valuable Selection plan. A strategic plan must continue. When we issued it I said that it was the Bible by which we have to guide ourselves in the coming years”. (D)