Barcelona appoints Ronald Koeman as New Coach

Ronald Koeman the current head coach of the Dutch National team and former Barcelona midfielder, has been appointed the club’s new coach. This was made known by the club’s President Josep Maria Bartomeu.

He replaces Quique Setien who was fired after Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals after being thrashed 8-2 by Bayern Munich.

The Champions League exit meant Barcelona finished the season trophy-less for the first time since 2007.

The new head coach, Koeman has been in charge of the Netherlands National team since 2018. He is 57years old. He has had coaching stints with Everton, Southampton, Ajax, Feyenoord amongst others.

In a released statement, Bartomeu said “Koeman will be Barcelona’s coach next season and if everything goes well, he will be officially revealed soon and he will guide this team and the players with a different project”.

He further stated that “He is someone the supporters know well, not just as a player but also as a coach.”

Ronald Koeman had played for Barcelona under the legendary Johan Cruyff and was noted to have scored the winning goal in the 1992 European Cup final and that was Barcelona’s first ever success in Europe’s top club competition.

Also considered for the top job was former Tottenham manager, Mauricio Pochettino. He was reported to have initially had a slight edge over Koeman as replacement for Setien, but was dumped due to comments he made about Barcelona when he was linked with a move to Espanyol.