The Barça fans can breathe a sigh of relief: The club idol Xavi Hernández is the new coach of FC Barcelona.

This was announced by FC Barcelona on Saturday night.

Previously, there had been long negotiations and contradicting information about an allegedly already reached and then denied agreement.

Xavi was signed for the current season and the two that followed, according to a statement published on the FC Barcelona website. He will arrive in Barcelona over the weekend and will be officially presented on Monday. The notification did not contain any further details. In the away game this Saturday (4.15 p.m. at DAZN) at Celta Vito, interim coach Sergi Barjuan is still sitting on the bench.

According to media reports, at the talks of a delegation from the Catalan club headed by Vice-President Rafael Yuste in Doha, the payment of five million euros was concerned.

According to the information, Al Sadd was entitled to this in the event of an early termination of the coaching contract, which actually ran until mid-2023.

Barça initially refused the payment, it said.

It has now been agreed that the sum will be raised in equal parts by FC Barcelona and Xavi, wrote the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.

Anxious hours for Barça fans

The future coach of the Catalans should pay his share of the payment in the coming years as a football ambassador for Qatar, the newspaper wrote.

Since these points were to be legally and tax-tightly agreed, the negotiations would have taken longer than initially thought.

There was initially no official confirmation for this arrangement.

For a short time it even looked as if the negotiations might fail.

Al-Sadd CEO Turki Al-Ali wrote on Twitter on Friday: "Al Sadd has agreed to Xavi's move to Barcelona after paying the sums agreed in the contract." Xavi is an important part of the history of Al Sadd and the club I wish him every success in the future, stressed Al-Ali.

Everything seemed already bagged.

Only about an hour and a half later, however, Mundo Deportivo reported that representatives of FC Barcelona were angry about the statement.

The club is not ready to pay the requested amount.

There were more anxious hours for the Barça fans before the final agreement was reached.

Xavi had played for Barça between 1998 and 2015 and won the Champions League four times with the club.

With the Spanish national team he was world and European champion.

Now he succeeds the shot Dutchman Ronald Koeman.

The difficult task of leading the traditional club after the departure of superstar Lionel Messi from the sporting crisis awaits him.

"I really want to go home," said the former midfield star of the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo recently.

The post is considered to be particularly demanding and risky.

Koeman was only able to stay there from August 2020 until last October, his predecessor Quique Setién even only eight months.

The athletically and financially struggling FC Barcelona is currently being coached on an interim basis by the previous coach of the B-Elf, Sergi Barjuan.

Under his direction, the team around national goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen initially managed a 1-1 draw against CD Alavés at home.

On Tuesday, the Catalans won the Champions League at Dynamo Kiev 1-0 and thus preserved their chances of reaching the round of 16.

In the table of the Spanish La Liga, the club, previously spoiled by success, has slipped to ninth place.

The gap to the first in the table Real Sociedad San Sebastian is nine points.