Ronald Koeman Not The Right Man For Barcelona, Says Club Presidential Candidate

Ronald Koeman has just been officially appointed as the new Barcelona head coach, but his stint could already be in peril with club presidential candidate Victor Font insisting that he is not the right man for the job. The elections are still set for 2021, but Font has already hinted on a potential coaching change as he shared that he intends to hire another Barca legend to lead the club at the pitch.

"If I am president, Koeman will not be the coach," Font told Cadena SER, via Goal. "Koeman is a legend of Barcelona. We have to thank him very much that with the complexity that exists today in the club, and in the dressing room, and with the decisions that have to be made, he has taken on the challenge (of being head coach).

"We must wish him the best of success and hopefully we win the treble. If in the end it were necessary and he wanted to, he could still contribute to our project in some way, but we will apply our project in its main structure from the vice president all the way down to the last youth football coach based on the organization chart that we have prepared for a long time."

But while Font offered nothing but well wishes on Koeman, he has made his stand clear that the Catalans could do better with another tactician on the sidelines as he admitted that the man on his radar is Koeman’s fellow club icon, Xavi.

“Xavi understands that all the pieces of the club have to fit together," Font said. "A board of directors that lets whoever leads the sports project to do his work, which in our case would be him.”

Aware of the rumors stating Lionel Messi’s possible departure from Camp Nou, Font said the appointment of Xavi - the Argentine’s former prized teammate – should be enough to convince the club’s star captain to stay.

"Messi is completely disappointed because of the critical situation at the club both in sports and in economic and organizational terms. I expect that Messi will play under Xavi in 2021,” he continued.

Font will be running against Josep Maria Bartomeu in Barcelona’s presidential election that is scheduled to take place in the summer of 2021.