Football: coach Xavi returns to revive a very sick FC Barcelona

Xavi Hernandez, here on October 1, 2019, was appointed FC Barcelona first team coach on November 6, 2021. AFP - KARIM JAAFAR

Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow

3 min

As expected, Xavi Hernandez is the new coach of FC Barcelona.

The Catalan club announced the arrival of its former player on the bench on Saturday, November 6.

He is committed until 2024. The former midfielder, who won everything with the Blaugrana when he was on the pitch, takes up a big challenge: to revive a club in bad shape sporting and economically.

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" 

 ", " 

 ", " 

 " ... FC Barcelona is in turmoil. What was expected is finally happening. There was little doubt that the first-team coaching job would go to Xavi Hernandez. Like his elder Pep Guardiola before him, it seemed written that the former midfielder would one day arrive on the bench in the coach's suit.

The hypothesis took even more shape on October 27 when Ronald Koeman, also a former player turned coach, was fired by the club. The Dutchman paid for Barça's poor results that night. To replace him, Xavi's name quickly emerged. It was still necessary to find common ground with Al Sadd, the 2021 champion of Qatar. It was there that the Spaniard ended his playing career (2015-2019) before starting his career in the aftermath. 'coach.

While waiting for the situation to unblock, Sergi Barjuan - still a former blaugrana player - has taken over the interim.

And on Friday, November 5, the planets began to align: 

from his contract.

From then on, all that was missing was the formalization of Barça.

She fell early in the night from Friday to Saturday November 6.

" 

 ", that is until June 2024, announces the club proudly on its website.

Xavi Hernández returns home 6 years after his goodbye from Camp Nou 💙❤️

- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 6, 2021

This bloodless Barça has nothing to do with that of the golden era

The second most capped player in the club's history (767 matches, behind Lionel Messi's 778), Xavi has won everything under these colors.

In 17 years, from 1998 to 2015, he won 25 major trophies, including four Champions Leagues, eight Spanish Championships and two Club World Cups.

He also had the consecration with Spain by winning twice the Euro, in 2008 and in 2012, and once the World Cup, in 2010. In club as with the national team, Xavi was at the center of the culmination of two teams that are among the best in history.

Like Pep Guardiola, to whom he is often compared, Xavi Hernandez inherits the keys to Barca.

He often said that this prospect was " 

 ".

Here it is.

But enthusiasm will quickly give way to reality.

The new coach finds a very different club from the one he left in 2015.

From this golden era, there are not many cadors left.

Andrés Iniesta, Javier Mascherano, Luis Suarez, Daniel Alves, Neymar and Lionel Messi have left, among others.

They had become too old or unwanted ... In 2017, Neymar divorced Barça and answered the call of PSG, causing an earthquake in Catalonia.

Worse, the absolute jewel, Leo Messi, also had to leave last summer, towards Paris.

He wanted to stay, Barça wanted to keep him, but years of mismanagement by the leaders resulted in this heartbreaking departure;

the club, over-indebted, could no longer keep its brilliant Argentinian.

So is the

 : bloodless finances, results in free fall (no title in 2019-2020, a first since 2008), weakened team ... Now with Xavi as a guide, the Blaugrana hope to regain their former glory.

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