Xavi Hernandez was appointed on Saturday to replace the sacked Ronald Koeman at Barcelona, with a brief to revive the fortunes of a club langusishing in the lower reaches of La Liga. He is expected to land at Barcelona this weekend and be presented to the public on Monday.
The Spaniard signed a contract until the end of the 2023/2024 season, the Catalan club said in a statement.
“FC Barcelona have reached an agreemetn with Xavi Hernandez from him to become first team manager for the rest of the current season and two more seasons.” Barcelona said.
“Xavi Hernandez, a youth team product at Barca, has left his current club, Al Sadd of Qatar, after talks held over the last few days with the owners of the club.
“It’s expected that Xavi Hernandez will arrive in Barcelona this weekend and that on Monday, November 8, his presentation as new FC Barcelona first team manager will take place in an event open to the public at Camp Nou.” Barcelona added.
Xavi has played almost his entire career for the Spanish top club and was considered the ideal successor to take over Koeman’s position.
As a footballer, he won 25 trophies with Barcelona, including the Champions League four times. Since 2019 he has been lead as football manager at Al Sadd, in Qatar.
The Dutch manager Koeman was sacked late last month, hours after his team’s defeat to Rayo Vallecano. His position at the Spanish club had been shaky for some time.
Few days ago, Al Sadd has insisted that they want Xavi to stay until the end of the season. But the Qatari has agreed on Xavi’s move to Barcelona after the payment of the release clause stipulated in the contract.
“Al Sadd management has reached an agreement on Xavi’s departure to Barcelona after the amount of his departure clause as set out in his contract has been paid,” Al Sadd said.
