Xavi has insisted that his alternative as Barcelona head coach subsequent season will need to have “Barca DNA”, in step with the membership’s long-standing traditions.
The 44-year-old delivered Barcelona’s first La Liga title since 2019 final season, however outcomes have tailed off in 2023/24 and he introduced in January his intention to step down in the summertime. He described the expertise of being Barca coach “merciless” and “disagreeable”.
The Catalans are but to choose a successor and Xavi has refused to present his opinion on the sort of traits and attributes that particular person ought to have, apart from one crucial factor.
“I don’t know,” he stated when requested at a press convention forward of going through Getafe. “Ultimately, it is Deco and the president who need to resolve. [But] he ought to preserve the road of Barca DNA.”
That ‘Barca DNA’ has typically been a theme of coaches employed at Camp Nou. Xavi himself spent 24 years on the membership from the age of 11 till he retired as a participant in 2015.
Pep Guardiola was additionally a former participant earlier than turning into supervisor, whereas Johan Cruyff helped revolutonise the membership together with his imaginative and prescient as a participant earlier than later returning as coach at a low level of their historical past in 1988 after which ushering within the ‘Dream Workforce’ period.
In recent times, Luis Enrique, the late Tito Vilanova, Ernesto Valverde and Ronald Koeman have all possessed it too. Much less profitable appointments like Quique Setien and Gerardo Martino had no prior connection to the membership earlier than being recruited.
Frank Rijkaard, winner of Barca’s 2006 Champions League title is an exception of the rule. Nevertheless, his roots at Ajax and having labored beneath visionary coach Rinus Michels within the Dutch nationwide staff ensured he was already nicely versed in related rules that outline Barca DNA.
If Barca are actually searching for that DNA of their seek for Xavi’s successor, it exists in Mikel Arteta, Thiago Motta, present B staff coach Rafael Marquez and even Jose Mourinho, however not within the likes of Roberto De Zerbi, Thomas Tuchel, Hansi Flick or Julian Nagelsmann.
