'I feel ready to coach any team in the world' - Xavi hints at Barcelona return as new manager
Stefan Bienkowski
- 23 Oct 2021 12:05 BST
- 7 min read
Former Barcelona star Xavi has revealed that he previously rejected the chance to manage his former club but would now be confident in taking on the reins of the Catalan side.
The former Spain international has been linked with the Barca dug out since he began his coaching career in 2019, when he agreed to join Al-Sadd as their head coach on a two-year deal.
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However, despite constantly being linked with the managerial hot seat at Barca, Xavi has never shown a direct interest in taking the job, until now.
And when asked about his future plans as a manager ahead of the Emir Cup final between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan, Xavi revealed that he was now ready to take on the job.
"Yes, I feel ready to coach any team in the world," Xavi said to a local broadcaster, per Marca.
"When they offered me it, I'd only been a coach for three months, but now it's different. I have more experience and I'm learning a lot here.
"I want to tell everyone that I'm very happy in Qatar and my idea is to keep achieving success with this team."
Could Xavi become Barca manager this season?
After joining the club on an initial two-year contract in 2019, Xavi later signed an extension to stay on as Al-Sadd manager until 2023.
However, if Barca were in desperate need of a new manager it now seems likely that the former midfielder would jump at the opportunity, despite no clear clause being in his current deal to allow the head coach to move on.
Such a scenario isn’t entirely hard to imagine, considering Ronald Koeman’s continued struggles to turn things around at the Camp Nou.
However, rather than drop Xavi into the middle of the mess in January, Barca may be planning on waiting until the end of the season to drop Koeman and offer Xavi a clean slate and a fresh, new start at the club.
