Xavi set to renew contract with a special clause allowing him to leave for Barça | OneFootball

Icon: Barca Universal

Barca Universal

·4 May 2021

Xavi set to renew contract with a special clause allowing him to leave for Barça

Article image:Xavi set to renew contract with a special clause allowing him to leave for Barça

According to Edu Polo, Xavi will renew his contract with Al Sadd, while maintaining a special clause if he wishes to come back to Catalonia.

The Barça legend departed the Camp Nou in 2015 when he set his sight on Qatar. After playing for several seasons at Al Sadd, he undertook a job as their coach. He has won many trophies and managed to reach great heights as the Qatari club’s gaffer.


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The 41-year-old’s home club, however, has not enjoyed such success. With a change in board from Josep Maria Bartomeu and his cronies to the hopeful Joan Laporta, the club has been in a period of transition and is lacking in several aspects. Mounting debts, squad deficiencies, and mentality problems have all weighed on the Catalonians.

With somewhat of a resurgence under Ronald Koeman — the club’s head coach since August 2020 — and Laporta’s arrival, Barça have started steering towards the right direction.

Reportedly, Laporta has a miracle plan in the works, which would see sponsorships worth over €500m coming into the Camp Nou. The plan also seeks to slash Messi’s contract to half its current value, the deficit of which the Argentinian will be paid back in the long term as a club ambassador.

In addition, the team is beginning to look brighter than before, with an injection of youth coming in the form of Pedri, Sergiño Dest, Ronald Araujo, Oscar Mingueza, Ousmane Dembélé, Frenkie de Jong, and Ilaix Moriba; all young players who have enjoyed great seasons under Koeman.

The team also looks more dynamic, positionally mobile, and threatening in attack; there is a certain fluency under the Dutch manager which has replaced the static and slow style of play that existed under Ernesto Valverde.

While the end goal, both for Barça as well as Xavi, is to have the former club legend return to Catalonia as the Blaugranas’ head coach, it seems now may not be the right time for such a move. With a wise, experienced coach like Koeman, the team currently finds itself in a period of transition, with many youngsters coming up in the starting eleven.

Koeman has proven his mettle, winning over the players’ trust, the Copa del Rey, and having improved his players’ mentality. Therefore, the dream transfer of Xavi returning to Barça as the head coach must wait, at least, another season.

Most likely aware of this situation, Xavi is set to renew at Al Sadd to stay for an additional two seasons at the Qatari club. However, his contract will — as always — maintain a special clause that will allow him to leave the club if he wishes to return to Barça as head coach. It is wonderful that Al Sadd have given the Catalonian manager the respect he deserves and the leeway to leave as he wishes.

There is no doubt that after Ronald Koeman’s time at the Camp Nou is up, the role of head coach is only for one man: Xavi Hernandez.

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