Barcelona has officially announced that their former player Ronald Koeman will be the next coach of the first team. Koeman signed the contract with Barcelona till 30 June 2022. The former Barcelona defender resigned from the post of the coach at Netherland to join the Catalan giants.
Barcelona fired coach Quique Setién on Monday, three days after the team’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the first step in what it said would be “a wide-ranging restructuring" of the club.
The decision was announced after an urgent board meeting summoned by president Josep Bartomeu in Barcelona. The club also announced new elections for March 2021 and said “profound changes” were coming for the first team.
Earlier, on Tuesday club president Josep Bartomeu confirmed that Koeman will join Barcelona.
“Koeman will be the coach that will help this club move forward with a new project,” Bartomeu said. “It's a coach that we know very well in Barcelona, not only as a player but also as a coach. He knows Barça and its way of understanding soccer.”
As a player, Koeman helped Barcelona clinch its first European title by scoring an extra-time winner in a final nearly two decades ago, and now the former defender is set to return to try to lift the club from its current crisis.
The 57-year-old Koeman began his coaching career as an assistant with Barcelona in the late 1990s.
As a player, Koeman helped Barcelona clinch its first European title by scoring an extra-time winner in a final against Sampdoria at Wembley Stadium nearly two decades ago.
“The blaugrana legend, hero of Wembley, the man who handed Barça their first ever victory in the European Cup returns to Camp Nou,” Barcelona said.
(with AP inputs)
