THE REAL REASON WHY XAVI LEAVING BARCELONA!
The real reason for Xavi's dismissal
“The President, Joan Laporta, has informed Xavi that he will not be the coach of FC Barcelona next season. He will lead his last game this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. against Sevilla. Barcelona wants to thank Xavi for his work as coach and wishes him all the luck in the world,” Barcelona shocked everyone with their statement on Friday, May 24th.
So... XAVI IS GONE!
Well, at least the annoying saga with the change of Barcelona's head coach is finally over too...
The circus named after Joan Laporta has reached its climax - after all the efforts to keep Xavi on the job, the president of Barcelona eventually made a truly shocking decision...
We have gathered all versions of what happened in recent days so that you can find out the true reasons behind the sacking of Barça's legend... Here we go!
HOW LAPORTA SACKED XAVI
On April 25, Barcelona announced that Xavi was staying for another season. The overall atmosphere in the press center was happy and pretty positive. Just look at these photos [1,2,3].
At the time, Joan Laporta was certain of the club's future: “We're proud of you, Xavi!” and then the coach hugged the president. Some would say that their union is unbreakable and they will live happily ever after...
First rumours regarding Xavi's possible resignation began to emerge in the media right after the Catalans' defeat to Girona in early May, but the rumours were quickly dropped until the press conference ahead of the match versus Almeria, where Xavi said the following:
“Barcelona fans must understand that the situation is very difficult and complicated. We cannot compete with Real Madrid or any big European team economically”.
These were the words that made Laporte lose it - the Barcelona president felt betrayed, as at the very same sushi dinner, Xavi told him quite the opposite: how confident he was of the team, how motivated he felt and how ready he was to compete for all possible trophies next season.
To be fair, Xavi's pre- and post-Almeria speeches always highlighted the team's intention to fight in every game in order to ultimately capture new trophies. In other words, to a certain extent, we could assume that Laporta was “picking on” Xavi, even though he was telling the truth about the club's terrible financial state, which is well known to the entire football world!
The journalists were shocked by the situation provoked by Laporta: “I think what is being done with club legends is a shame. He (Laporta) behaved badly with Koeman and now with Xavi. There are arguments to fire the coach, but this is not the way to go,” noted journalist Victor Malo.
Other versions of why the president of Blaugrana orchestrated this whole show were also suggested: “I think Laporta has set up this circus to cover up the endorsement scandal. It is the only explanation I can find for publicly humiliating a legend like Xavi,” wrote David Sanchez.
Indeed, the Spanish giants' financial situation can be described as dire, since according to The Athletic, they must find €130 million by June 30 in order to cover their budget gap for this campaign. This piece of information is crucial and is certainly among reasons why Xavi was forced to say goodbye to the club of his life, but more on that later.
'Laporta is putting pressure on Xavi by activating the Hansi Flick route. It's a bit like what happened in 2021 with Koeman,' Xavi Navarro describes the strategy of Barcelona president. Except back then, it was the other way around - Xavi's figure was putting pressure on Koeman.
During the period between May 16 and May 24, the now ex-Barcelona manager was going through a very difficult time, though he continued to perform his duties with professionalism, fulfilling his main goal for the rest of the season - to ensure the club's second place in La Liga, and thus their participation in the Spanish Super Cup, which guarantees the Blaugrana a €5 million of prize money.
All this time, Xavi was trying to set up a meeting with the Barcelona chairman, but the latter always kept saying the same thing: “We'll have a meeting at the end of the season and discuss the matter.”
In the end, the tense atmosphere of uncertainty and media pressure did their job - Xavi met with Laporta ahead of schedule: “On Monday, Xavi visited Joan Laporta at the hospital because he had pneumonia. There, Laporta told Xavi: “If I have to act emotionally, I would like you to continue as coach; but logically the best thing is that you don't continue,” Marca newspaper shared their insight.
Yet, no final decision was made, leaving Xavi in limbo, amidst constant rumours of talks with Flick: