Ex-coach of the Russian national team, a fan of Messi and a chess lover: Seten replaced Valverde as coach of Barcelona

In Barcelona, ​​five days after the defeat in the semi-finals of the Spanish Super Cup, coaching castling took place. Ernesto Valverde, the former mentor, was fired, and Kike Seten, who had never worked with clubs of this level, replaced him. The contract with the 61-year-old specialist was signed until June 2022.

Quique Setién will be the new manager of FC Barcelona. Welcome!

➕ INFO https://t.co/EOP9MSFFJ1pic.twitter.com/IkhzFGyxHf

Valverde became the first coach in 17 years to be dismissed during the season. The last time such a fate befell Louis van Gala, when Barcelona lost 20 points to the team in first place in the championship of Spain. Now the Catalans share leadership in the Example with Real Madrid and are preparing to start in the Champions League playoffs. Nevertheless, after a failure in the Super Bowl, Valverde was out of work, although last February the contract was extended with him until 2021.

The defeat at the tournament in Saudi Arabia was not the only reason that prompted the Barcelona board of directors to gather on Monday night and pronounce their sentence. Under Valverde, the blue-garnet twice finished the fight in the Champions League, losing to Roma and Liverpool after crushing victories in home games. After that, Valverde began to rapidly lose popularity among fans who also began to notice that Barcelona had turned into a team of Lionel Messi alone and regularly failed if the Argentine striker did not enter the field or take the game on himself.

Agreement between FC Barcelona and Ernesto Valverde to end his contract as manager of the first team. Thank you for everything, Ernesto. Best of luck in the future. pic.twitter.com/zrIgB1sW2e

The management of “Barcelona” was looking for a successor to Valverde even before the final decision on his dismissal. So, during a trip to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Spanish Super Cup, Executive Director Oscar Grau and sports director Eric Abidal went to Qatar to negotiate with the legend of the Xavi club. However, he, despite the desire to lead Barcelona, ​​refused. The former footballer chose to end the season with his current club, Al-Sadd.

On the short list of the Catalans were several more specialists with whom it was not possible to agree. The head coach of the Netherlands national team Ronald Kuman did not accept the offer, as he wants to focus on a successful performance at Euro 2020. Ex-Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino also ruled out the possibility of heading Barcelona, ​​as he had previously coached her principal rival, Espanyol.

As a result, the team was led by Seten, known in Spain only for working with the middle peasants. He began his coaching career in the Santander Racing, for which he played 12 seasons. After a short period of work with Polideportivo, Seten ended up in Russia, joining the headquarters of a beach soccer team created from scratch. With the participation of a Spanish expert, Russian beach players immediately became the silver medalists of the European Cup.

Then he worked a little with the national team of Equatorial Guinea, and then returned to his homeland and collaborated with such clubs as Logronies, Lugo, Las Palmas and Betis. The coach tried to instill in each of them a short-pass game and maximum possession of the ball - these are the signature features of the Barcelona style that have been traced from the time when the team was led by Johan Cruyff. Since then, Seten has had a special sympathy for the Catalans, in the matches with whom he was, by his own admission, completely helpless.

Spanish football lovers Seten is also known as a big chess fan. In his interviews, a specialist often compares matches with chess games, finding a lot in common in them. Seten even played with world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as with Sergey Karjakin, who at that time was 12 years old.

♟️ Setién aguanta el pulso a Karpov # Golazopic.twitter.com / EXOWyKpqRA

The beautiful attacking football set by Seten helped his teams achieve quick results, but, as a rule, did not lead to success over a long distance. A striking example of this is his work at Betis, which the specialist made one of the most attractive clubs in Spain. Under Setien, the team beat Real Madrid and Barcelona on its field, but last season finished in tenth place. After that, the coach was fired and remained unemployed for more than six months.

At the presentation, as head coach of Barcelona, ​​Seten promised to win as many trophies as possible and admitted that he was glad of the opportunity to work with many famous players, among whom he had previously singled out Messi.

“I want to thank the organization for giving me the opportunity. Even in my wildest dreams, I could not imagine such a thing. Thrilled by this challenge and project. Yesterday I walked around my native village surrounded by cows, and now I am in Barcelona and train the best players in the world. The goal is to win everything! All that can be won, Barcelona has no other way, ”said Seten.

The first test for Setiena will be the match with Granada in the Spanish Championship, which will immediately be followed by the opening game in the Cup of the country against Ibiza. In late February, Barcelona will play in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League with Napoli and will try to take the first step towards winning this tournament for the first time since 2015. True, the next four months Seten will not be able to count on the help of Luis Suarez, who needs knee surgery.