Former Barcelona defender on playing under Ronald Koeman: “Can only say good things about him” | OneFootball

Speaking during an interview with Jijantes FC, former Barcelona defender Oscar Mingueza expressed his gratitude towards ex-manager Ronald Koeman.

Mingueza made his first-team debut for Barça during the 2020/21 season when Koeman was in charge and featured fairly regularly in the second half of the campaign.

The La Masia product, who left for Celta Vigo last year, looked back on his experience under Koeman fondly, despite an incident during a game when the Dutch tactician yelled at him from the sidelines.

On the incident and his general experience under the former Netherlands manager, Mingueza said: “Koeman apologized to me the next day, everything went well. I can only say good things about him, he’s the one who gave me a chance.”

Mingueza will be coming face to face with Barcelona later this weekend as Celta Vigo face the Catalans in La Liga. And the defender is looking forward to the reunion, as he said:

“I’m excited to return to Barcelona. I can’t wait to see Iñaki Peña again, he is the player I spent the most time with. Also with Araujo, Pedri, Gavi, Ferran, Frenkie, Marc, I had a good relationship with them.”

The former Barcelona defender also spoke about the media pressure that comes with playing for the Catalans and the situation at Celta Vigo, saying:

“The media pressure here at Celta is not comparable to that of Barcelona… If you have a bad game here, you’re on your own. There will be people on Twitter, in the press who say something, but nothing compared to Barça.”

Mingueza left Barcelona in the summer of 2022 for Celta Vigo, after making 66 appearances in which he scored two goals and set up five more.

The 24-year-old defender has been a regular for Rafael Benitez’s Celta this season, featuring in all five La Liga matches, even scoring a goal.