After this season, Xavi Hernández will step down from his position as Barcelona’s coach, claiming he is unable to get the squad out of a funk.
After this season, Xavi Hernández will step down from his position as Barcelona’s coach, claiming he is unable to get the squad out of a funk.
Shortly after Barcelona’s 5-3 loss to Villarreal in the Spanish league left them 10 points behind leaders Real Madrid, Xavi made his announcement on Saturday.
“I would like to announce that on June 30 I will cease being the coach of Barça,” Xavi said. “As a Barcelona fan, I can’t allow this situation to continue, we need a change of course and of dynamics.”
Xavi stated that he “would have made” the decision sooner rather than later, even though the difficult loss to Villarreal created the stage for him to do so. He made the decision “several days ago.” He expressed his expectation that his team’s level of stress and tension would lessen as a result of this choice.
“The feeling of being the coach of Barcelona is cruel, it is unpleasant, you feel like you don’t get the respect you deserve,” Xavi said. “It wears you down, affects your mental health, your emotions, up to the point that you say you can’t go on. My loved ones know that.”
Xavi, who had only lived in Qatar for a short time, took his coaching position back at Barcelona in November 2021. His contract expires at the end of the following season.
The 44-year-old Xavi guided Barcelona to its first league and Super Cup victories in Spain last season—the first since Lionel Messi left the team. In order to assist him in doing that, the team signed players like Robert Lewandowski at great financial risk.
However, Barcelona has had a difficult season and is clearly headed for collapse this month.
Barcelona recently saw its two best chances of winning this season pass away. Two weeks after Real Madrid destroyed Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup, Xavi’s team lost 4-2 in extra time against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday, advancing to the Copa del Rey quarterfinals.
Following the Villarreal fiasco, Xavi expressed that his team lacked the “maturity” to sustain leads. Following the Bilbao defeat, he emphasised that he was fielding a number of inexperienced players.
But that didn’t appear to fit with the fact that players in their prime like Frenkie de Jong and Pedri González led his starting lineup, together with veterans like Lewandowski and Ilkay Gundogan.
Next month, Barcelona and Napoli will square off in the round of 16 of the Champions League. Xavi stated that he was still driven to guide the group in what is undoubtedly a long-shot attempt to win a European Cup to cap out his tenure.
