Madrid (AFP)
A strong character and a symbol of the Barcelona-style game: Ronald Koeman (57), who will be appointed coach in the coming days according to President Bartomeu to redress a Barça in crisis, embodies the golden age of the "Dream Team "by Johan Cruyff and the long Dutch tradition of the Catalan club.
Apostle of the "totaalvoetbal" who has filled his CV between his birth in Zaandam (western Netherlands) and his return to Barcelona on Tuesday, Koeman, announced for several years as a possible Barça coach, will now fulfill his "dream" on the blaugrana bench.
He will have a lot to do, as Barça is to be rebuilt after the historic debacle suffered against Bayern Munich last Friday in the Champions League quarter-final (8-2).
"As a coach, I have two dreams to fulfill. The first is to be coach of the Netherlands. My other dream is to one day coach Barça," said the technician there is three years, when his name circulated to replace Luis Enrique on the bench of Barça, who had finally opted for Ernesto Valverde.
To achieve this second dream, he had to give up the first: coach of the Netherlands for two years (2018-2020), he preferred to leave the national team, which he had to guide to the Euro-2020 reprogrammed to the summer 2021, to engage "in the coming days" with FC Barcelona, according to the announcement of President Josep Maria Bartomeu this Tuesday evening on BarçaTV.
- "I like Barça" -
"Everyone knows that I love Barça, people know all the love I have for this club in which I grew up as a player and as a person," he stressed in 2017.
To obtain this bench, Koeman had put all the chances on his side: "Tintin", as he is nicknamed in Spain for his blond puff, announced on November 3, 2019 on Fox Sports to have a clause in his contract as coach of the Oranje (which ran until 2022) allowing him to join FC Barcelona in the event of a proposal from the Catalan club.
Between the Blaugrana team and Koeman, it's a story of mutual love: as a player, under the colors of Barça (1989-1995), the blond had notably offered his first C1 to the club in 1992, with a clear and powerful free kick against Sampdoria in the final at Wembley (1-0 ap). The crowning glory of the “Dream Team” coached by his mentor, Johan Cruyff, and his “best season” as a player, in his own words.
Koeman arrived at Barça in the summer of 1989, having already won four Dutch championships and a Champions Clubs' Cup in 1988 with PSV Eindhoven. Under the orders of his illustrious compatriot Cruyff, he discovered the DNA of the Catalan game.
His trophy cabinet then filled up: in addition to the C1, the solid central defender Koeman won four Spanish Championships, a Copa del Rey and a European Supercup.
- La Liga, a bad memory -
After his retirement as a player, he cut his teeth as an assistant with the "Oranje" (1997-1998) and at FC Barcelona, already (1998-2000), alongside his compatriot Louis van Gaal.
Koeman started out as head trainer at Vitesse Arnhem (2000-2001), but it was on the bench of Ajax Amsterdam (2001-2005) that he began to be recognized as a trainer, notably winning two National Championship titles. -Low.
The following experiences are mixed: at Benfica Lisbon (2005-2006), at PSV Eindhoven (2006-2007), at AZ Alkmaar (2009), or at Everton (2016-2017), Koeman will only last one year, and will be dismissed each time for lack of results.
If he succeeds a little better at Feyenoord (2011-2014) and Southampton (2014-2016) before entering the Dutch selection, his only experience on a Spanish bench is mixed. When he arrived in Valence (2007-2008), Koeman turned the workforce upside down. The club will fight for maintenance but the coach will be dismissed before the end of the season, April 21, 2008, just after winning the Copa del Rey.
And yet, it is only with drastic changes of this caliber that Koeman, who came close to the worst with heart failure in the midst of the new coronavirus crisis in early May, will be able to transform this lead Barça into a new golden generation. Because there is talent, with the great hopes Ansu Fati (17 years old), Riqui Puig (21 years old), Ousmane Dembélé (23 years old) or his fellow countryman Frenkie de Jong (23 years old), recruited last summer .
This will be the whole project of the alchemist Koeman: to give back to this dull Barça the same brilliance that his flavescente hair gave him.
© 2020 AFP