‘The excitement has returned’… Barcelona president showers praise on Hansi Flick at Christmas dinner | OneFootball

FC Barcelona have only one game left before the players leave for their Christmas holidays, i.e., their upcoming crucial tie against Atletico Madrid which is scheduled for this Saturday.

Meanwhile, the celebrations for Christmas have already begun at the Blaugrana club, as a dinner was held on Thursday night to mark this event, and was attended by more than 500 employees of the Catalan club, including the entire first team squad.

This was definitely an event for these players to relax and enjoy the most festive part of the year, and some of Joan Laporta’s comments on the night would certainly have gone on to encourage the Barcelona team to keep giving their best.

As Diario AS has reported, the Barcelona President took this opportunity to praise Hansi Flick, who remained rather close to Laporta on this night, along with other notable individuals like Deco and Marc Andre Ter Stegen.

Talking of Flick, the President was quite clear that he can make the Blaugrana team competitive once again: “With Flick, the excitement has returned to Barça fans; we feel capable of competing for everything again.”

There is no doubt that Flick would have been delighted to hear these words from the top Barcelona executive. However, some people present on the occasion also interpreted these comments as a dig at Xavi Hernandez, as one of the reasons why the Blaugranes parted ways with him was for their belief that he did not trust the current squad and did not believe he could lead them going forward.

Whatever his motives, Laporta still received resounding applause from the attendees as he finished his speech, in which he also praised the women’s team. This confidence bestowed on him from the very top can prove to be crucial for Flick, as his team has not been able to get the required results in La Liga for the last few weeks.