Xavi Hernández could be presented this Friday as Barcelona coach
Everything indicates that FC Barcelona hopes to make official this Friday the signing of Xavi Hernández as coach of the first team. The Spaniard is the current coach of Al Sadd of Qatar who has not yet given a positive response to his transfer.
However, everything indicates that the former Barça player would be leading his old club in the league derby against Espanyol, a match that will take place on November 20. This would be turning into the first international challenge for Xavi, who until now has only directed the Qatari club.
The hiring of Xavi has generated many doubts in the club's fans and in Joan Laporta, considering that he is a technician without much experience and that the difficulty of the Qatar league is not the same as the Spanish one or what European competitions represent..
To all this we must add that the Spaniard would be taking the reins of the club in one of its worst sporting moments, something that clearly affected Ronald Koeman 's stage and that he could not cope with. Now it is only hoped that Xavi Hernández will be able to put together a good team and can lift the spirits of the club.
Barcelona stays one more day in Doha
Mateu Alemany, director of the football area and Rafa Yuste, the club's sports vice president, have decided to extend their stay in Doha for one more day, all with the intention of being able to close the signing of the Spanish coach with Al Sadd.
Xavi has already made his intentions to go home publicly known and it is something that both Barcelona and Al Sadd know. So it is expected that this Friday there will be a total agreement between both clubs so that the Catalans can stay with their former player. Once the Qatari classic of Al Sadd against Al Duhail ended, which ended tied at three goals, the Spanish coach acknowledged his desire to return to Catalonia. " I'm really looking forward to going back and I'm really looking forward to going home." That was how Xavi finally broke the silence and accepted his desire to lead the Catalans.
However, Xavi knows very well that he has a contract with the Qatari club and that there is a small decision clause. This clause would be the main inconvenience for the Catalans to get Xavi, considering that the club has financial problems to pay it and which represents a large sum of money. The contacts between the Catalan coach, his representatives Fernando Solanas and Arturo Canales, the president of Al Sadd, Mohamad bin Khalifa al Thani, Yuste and Alemany have been communicating many in the last hours, where they all try to reach an agreement, the main objective being Xavi's departure from Qatar.
Xavi closer and closer
If Xavi 's hiring goes out to Barcelona as expected, then Sergi Barjuan would be directing his last meeting as Barcelona's first coach next Saturday before Celta. Barjuan took over the first team after the dismissal of Ronald Koeman.
So far, the interim manager has led two games, achieving a draw in the League and a victory in the Champions League. While Xavi Hernández would be taking command of the team from next Monday.
In this way, the now Al Sadd coach would be taking advantage of the clubs' break for the qualifying matches to Qatar 2022, so he may have two weeks to prepare his debut match against Espanyol for the League at the Camp Nou.