Ronald Koeman is set to become Barcelona’s new coach and will count on Lionel Messi as “the pillar” of his new project, club president Josep Bartomeu said on Tuesday.
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Bartomeu said in an interview with Barca TV that negotiations with the Dutch had progressed, but that a deal had yet to be signed.
“If there is no change, then we will announce Koeman as our next coach, and he will lead this team and these players forward with a different kind of project, led by a coach that all Barca fans know,” he said. Bartomeu.
The announcement comes four days after the team’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Bartomeu also dealt with the future of star forward Messi, who cut a frustrated figure in the loss to the Germans.
“Messi wants to end his career at Barca, he has said that many times. I have talked to Koeman about him and he has told me that Messi will be the pillar of his project,” said Bartomeu.
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Sid Lowe presents his reports. Ronald Koeman will be appointed as the next manager of Barcelona
“Messi has a contract with Barca until 2021. I talk to him and his father regularly, and they know we have a solid project, that a new coach is coming and that he will count on him.”
Koeman’s upcoming arrival will be the third phase of a restructuring of the club that began with the dismissal of Quique Setien on Monday and continued on Tuesday as sports director Eric Abidal agreed to terminate his contract.
As a player, Koeman helped Barcelona climb their first European title by scoring an extra time-winner in a final almost two decades ago, and now the former defender is ready to return to try to lift the club out of its current crisis.
The 57-year-old Koeman has been in charge of the Dutch national team since 2018 and had a contract that would expire after the 2022 World Cup.
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.
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