Recently circulated press reports revealed the existence of a summer deal that will ignite a major crisis between Barcelona’s management and Spanish coach Xavi Hernandez.
Xavi had announced that he would continue as coach of Barcelona next season, despite his earlier announcement of his departure at the end of the season, but not much time passed until signs of a crisis began to loom on the horizon.
According to information received from the Spanish newspaper “Sport”, Barcelona, led by Laporta, is interested in contracting with Italian star Marco Verratti, the Qatari star of Al-Arabi, whose contract expires in the summer of 2025.
The newspaper indicated that contracting with the Italian star means that Barcelona will be satisfied with strengthening the center position with Verratti and the Argentine Guido Rodriguez, and there will be no other reinforcements in this position, which is something that Xavi rejected.
The newspaper indicated that Xavi refused to sign a contract with the Italian player and moved towards one of the important options in the center position, as he put three names on Barcelona’s table, including the German Joshua Kimmich, the Bayern Munich star, the Spanish Zopmendi, the Real Sociedad star, and the Belgian Amadou Onana, the Everton star.
Xavi believes that free deals will not be able to build a team capable of returning to winning local and continental championships, and therefore he rejected the idea of including Verratti, but Laporta continues to cling to contracting with the player, especially since it will cost Barcelona a low amount.
