DBasia.news – Ronald Koeman has reportedly agreed to become Barcelona’s new coach to replace Quique Setien.
Setien was officially dismissed from his position through an official statement from The Blaugrana, Monday (17/8) local time. He only served for a few months as Barca coach, after being appointed to replace Ernesto Valverde in January.
“Quique Setien is no longer the coach of the team. A new coach will be announced in the next few days as part of the team restructuring,” said a Barca statement.
The statement confirmed the speculation that has raged since Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich in a humiliating 2-8 score in last week’s quarter-finals.
At that time, a number of replacement candidates had been speculated, one of which was Ronald Koeman. Before the news of Setien’s dismissal, Koeman was already seen in the city of Barcelona. Marca said he had been at the airport since Sunday (16/8) local time.
Now Sky Sports reported that Koeman has reached an agreement to become Barcelona’s new coach. Now El Barca must pay compensation to the KNVB, the Dutch football federation, considering that Ronald Koeman is still the coach of the Dutch national team.
Koeman is no stranger to the Camp Nou. He is a former Barcelona player in Johann Cruyff’s golden era, and, among other things, succeeded in the LaLiga title 4 times. Koeman also served as assistant coach to Louis van Gaal at Los Cules.
Ronald Koeman is said to be the first choice of Josep Maria Bartomeu, the current president of Barcelona. His official announcement as Barcelona’s new coach is also rumored to be made in the next few days.
On the other hand, there are rumors that Ronald Koeman will only take up his position as Barcelona coach for one year. That is because a number of Barca directors still want to try to explore the possibility of ‘bringing home’ Xavi, the club’s legendary player, as the new coach. Currently Xavi is still in charge of the Qatari club, Al-Sadd.