Madrid: FC Barcelona on Wednesday confirmed the signing of Ronald Koeman as their new first team coach.
The man, who is famous for scoring the winning goal for Barca in the 1992 Champions League final, leaves his position at the Dutch national team to replace Quique Setien, who was sacked as coach on Monday.
Koeman has signed a two-year contract until June 2022, but whether he sees that out could depend on many factors, especially as the club will hold elections for a new president next March and some of the possible candidates are thought to favor another former Barca player, Xavi Hernandez to coach the club.
The 57-year-old has a slightly checkered career as a club manager, beginning his coaching career with Barca’s B-team in the 1998-99 campaign before spells at all three of the Netherland’s biggest clubs, PSV Eindhoven, Feyernord and Ajax saw him lift three Dutch titles. He was also moderately successful in the Premier League with Southampton, although less so with Everton, while a spell at Benfica only yielded the Portuguese Supercup.
The new coach was filmed arriving at Barcelona airport on Tuesday evening and current club president Josep Maria Bartomeu confirmed Koeman would take over at the Camp Nou in an interview on Barca TV in which he also assured supporters that star player Leo Messi would also remain at the club.
One of Koeman’s tasks will be to oversee a major restructure of the Barca first team, with many of the club’s veteran players, such as Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Arturo Vidal marked for departure in the wake of Barca’s 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. (Xinhua)
