Ronald Koeman is expected to be the club’s new coach on Tuesday, the club’s president, Josep Bartomeu.
Bartomeu said in an interview with Barca TV that negotiations with the Dutchman were complex but that an agreement had yet been signed.
“If nothing changes, Koeman will be the new barcelona coach,” he said.
The announcement comes four days after the team’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
“Koeman will be the coach who will move this club forward with a new project,” Bartomeu said. “He is a coach that we know very well in Barcelona, not only as a player but also as a coach. He knows Barca and his way of understanding football.
As a player, Koeman helped Barcelona claim his first European name by scoring a goal in overtime in a final almost two decades ago, and now the ex-defense is about to return to get the club out of its current crisis. .
He will upgrade to Quique Setién, who fired behind Friday’s cave against Bayern.
Koeman, 57, had been in the Dutch national team’s fare since 2018 and had a contract that would end after the 2022 World Cup.
Bartomeu said Barcelona was interested in signing Koeman in January, but that this was not imaginable because of his commitment to Holland. The president said Koeman was able to take on the task now, as there was more time before foreign competitions resumed, making it less difficult for the Dutch federation to update it.
“It’s been a dream for him (for the Barcelona coach),” Bartomeu said.
Koeman, an energetic central defender, shone for Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff in the early 1990s, leading the club to 4 consecutive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994.
His tough shot with his right leg in the first half of the overtime in a final against Sampdoria gave Barcelona his first European trophy in 1992.
Koeman is also a key player for the Netherlands, who helped him win the 1988 European Championship. He also played for the Dutch national team at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.
He has become assistant coach Louis van Gaal in Barcelona some time after retiring as a player. His first head coaching role with Vitesse in 2000, and he also worked with Ajax, Benfica, PSV Eindhoven and Valencia, among other clubs. Before taking over from the Dutch team, he trained Southampton and Everton in England.
He led Holland to the last of the League of Nations last year, a festival they lost in the top opposition to Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo.
It will be a blue team that will come out of one of its disappointing peak seasons, the first untitled since 2007-08.
The team lost the name of the Spanish league to Real Madrid despite returning from the pandemic break with the lead in the most sensitive of the standings. He was eliminated via Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.
Set also has lasted 25 games at the helm, and Lionel Messi and his teammates have more than once shown their discontent with the club’s board.
Barcelona has announced “profound changes” in the club’s first and “large-scale” restructuring, with new presidential elections scheduled for March next year.
The club also announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with director Eric Abidal to terminate his contract. The former team had disappointed Lionel Messi this year after criticizing the team’s efforts amid a series of poor results. Bartomeu said Abidal had asked to leave the club.