Barcelona plan to hire Hansi Flick as coach after telling Xavi his time is up | Barcelona

Barcelona intend to make Hansi Flick their new coach after asserting that Xavi Hernández will go away after the season’s closing recreation on Sunday. The president, Joan Laporta, knowledgeable Xavi of his destiny in a gathering on the coaching floor on Friday.

Barcelona have been speaking to Flick for months and though the German’s camp denied there had been a gathering in London this week with the coach, his agent Pini Zahavi and the membership’s sporting director Deco, an settlement has been put in place for the previous Bayern Munich and Germany supervisor to take over. The B staff coach, Rafa Márquez, has been urged instead.

The ultimate choice on the coach had been scheduled for a gathering to be held after the ultimate recreation of the season, at Sevilla on Sunday evening. However somewhat after noon on Friday, Laporta visited the membership’s San Joan Despi HQ, the place he met with Xavi, Deco, the vice-president Rafa Yuste and Xavi’s employees.

“The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has knowledgeable Xavi Hernandez that he is not going to proceed as coach of the primary staff within the 2024-25 season,” a press release stated. “The assembly occurred on the Joan Gamper coaching complicated, with the presence of sporting vice-president Rafa Yuste, the sporting director Anderson Luis de Souza, Deco, Xavi and his assistants Oscar Hernández and Sergio Alegre.

“Barcelona want to thank Xavi for his work as coach, which is added to his unequalled profession as a participant and captain, and want him all of the luck on the earth. He’ll take cost of his final recreation as first staff coach this Sunday in Seville. Within the coming days, Barcelona will talk the brand new construction of the primary staff.”

Xavi had publicly stated he had each intention of constant. He had resigned on 27 January and carried out a U-turn on 24 April after being satisfied to remain.

Regardless of reviews final week that Laporta had determined to sack him, and the president’s refusal to satisfy with him, Xavi insisted “nothing had modified”.

Throughout every week of intense hypothesis and repeated leaks, a few of them strategic, there had been silence from Laporta and Deco, publicly and privately.

Xavi has at all times stated that cash wouldn’t be an issue and that he would stroll away when his time on the membership involves an finish. The phrases of his contract imply his sacking might price Barcelona about €20m (£17m).

Xavi described the Barcelona supervisor’s job as “merciless and unsightly” when he resigned in January, at a time when outcomes have been poor and the prospect of being sacked was more and more actual. He stated he would proceed to the top of the season, a components that Laporta stated he accepted “as a result of it’s Xavi proposing it and he’s a Barcelona legend”, however that the choice was irreversible, even when they received the Champions League.

However as Barcelona’s outcomes improved and as they struggled to safe a substitute, the president, vice-president and sporting director publicly stated they might attempt to persuade Xavi to remain. The coach’s message, though evasive, turned more and more receptive to doing so. On 24 April, they introduced that he was persevering with no less than till 2025 after a gathering on the membership’s coaching floor after which at Laporta’s house, with the media camped outdoors, the entire thing performed out in public.

At an emotional, celebratory press convention the next morning, Laporta stated that every one that had been wanted was for the 2 males to look one another within the eye and that it had taken solely three minutes. “I used to be at all times clear that I needed Xavi to proceed,” he stated. “Stability is essential for achievement.” Precisely a month later, Laporta knowledgeable Xavi that he had been sacked.

“It’s by no means simple to depart the membership of your life, however I’m very proud after two and a half years on the head of a dressing room that has been like a second household,” Xavi stated in an open letter printed on social media. “From Sunday I shall be one other fan within the stands … As a result of earlier than being a participant or a coach I’m a Barcelona fan and I solely need one of the best for the membership in my life, which can at all times have me at its disposal.

“This season issues haven’t gone our method, however now we have let it go and helped to develop a brand new era of younger footballers from La Masia who encourage all Barcelona followers … I want one of the best for the membership that I maintain pricey to my coronary heart.”