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Mauricio Pochettino is the current coach of Paris Saint-Germain, but the former sports director of Barcelona has claimed that he tried to ensure that the Argentine previously went to the Camp Nou.
Eric Abidal has explained that the former Tottenham manager was his number one choice to fill the managerial position in Catalonia a year ago.
Pochettino was named French champion last month after having been out of work since leaving Tottenham in November 2019, as previous reports linked him to a move to Barça.
Read more: Mauricio Pochettino: “I will never coach Barcelona”
In the Barcelona news of January 2020, the Spanish radio station RAC 1, reported in Mundo Deportivo, stated that the Blaugrana were looking for Pochettino to replace Ernesto Valverde.
Abidal has now verified this account, claiming that the Argentine was his number one choice for the position, which ultimately went to Quique Setien.
When Setien was replaced in August, The Guardian suggested that Pochettino was a possible replacement, but Ronald Koeman was named.
Now, it has emerged that Pochettino’s ties with Catalan Espanyol were fundamental in the club’s decision not to move for him.
“On my list were Mauricio Pochettino, Quique Setien, Max Allegri and Xavi Hernández,” Abidal explained in an interview with The Telegraph.
“Quique was appointed, but my first option was Pochettino. I told the board ‘I have to bring the best coach we can in the market. I’m not here for politics because he was at Espanyol before. ‘ For me, it is not politics. I wanted the best and Pochettino is one of the best in our game.
“He reached the Champions League final with Tottenham, you have to respect this, he has a good philosophy of the game, a good training philosophy, the players love him and I think that now he would be a better coach for this situation, but with a real project. .
“I knew there was a political problem because I gave my argument to the board and some answers were focused on Espanyol and not on the technical part. And I think he did an interview many years ago, I will not say that he spoke badly of the club, he said something about going to Argentina first before training Barcelona. This was a problem for the ego of some people and they said ‘no because he is not respecting the club’.
“But many years ago (José) Mourinho said that Barcelona was always in his heart and he became the coach of Real Madrid because this happens in races and different situations arise. It is not necessary to mix politics with professional decisions, but Barcelona is a unique club with a great board and many people making decisions ”.
