Deco: “I sign to win the Champions League and for Xavi to continue at the club” | Soccer | Sports

“Today, nothing has changed,” confessed Xavi Hernández about his goodbye from Barcelona, ​​announced on January 27, after losing to Villarreal in Montjuïc. And Deco, sports director, the Barça entity, has already been asked “about ten times” about the coach’s departure. This is how he explained it in the program What are you playing with? from Cadena SER from the Joan Gamper Sports City. And, so that no one doubts his position, he was full of praise for the coach. Nothing has changed for him either, a priori. But there is something that is clear. “If I sign on to win the Champions League and have Xavi continue? Yes, I sign,” Deco replied.

Although Xavi should make a radical change in his desire to continue in the Barça club beyond the end of the season. “Xavi continues saying that his decision is irreversible. If he changes anything, he will let us know. If he tells us that he wants to continue, we would have to talk to him to find out his plans and objectives,” added the sports director. A farewell that, for Deco, will be through the front door: “If there is any coach with courage and who has never complained, it is Xavi. It’s a pleasure to work with him. His stage will always be remembered as a stage of victory, it will always enter the history of a Barça that rebuilt itself.”

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However, Deco assured that “there has not yet been negotiation with any coach.” “We know who is available and who is not on the market. But we haven’t made any moves. When everything is clear, as with the fairplay, We will know what we can do.” The important thing for him is to “maintain” what they have. “For me, this squad has many things ahead of it. “I am very happy,” he confessed. His job, he has assured, is to maintain “stability”, and this involves seeing what will happen to some players on the team. “Araujo is going to renew, if he wants, we will try to make an effort. He is an important player for the club,” explained the sports director.

But there is still a lot to do for Deco, who laughed when asked if Barça could win the Champions League. “It’s something that people talk about because we have gone to the quarterfinals. But internally we already believed that we have a team to be fighting,” he confessed, optimistically. In the last ten games, Barcelona has not lost. For him, “nothing has changed”, and Xavi’s decision regarding his departure does not believe that “it has had an influence”. “Xavi makes the decision, but we have a league to fight for and goals in the Champions League. I understand that it is normal to talk, but we cannot be thinking about the end of the season in January,” he completed.

An end to the season that will be followed by a Euro Cup and an Olympic Games this summer, and one of Barcelona’s big concerns is what will happen to those footballers – especially the youngest ones – who could compete in both competitions. Xavi’s fear is, mainly, the role of Pau Cubarsí, called up with the national team: “I hope that the ‘Pedri case’ is not repeated, but it is not something I can decide. He deserves to go with the national team, he is at a high level. We must also value the bravery of De la Fuente.” For Deco, the way to solve it is dialogue with the players. “We always have to talk before prohibiting. We cannot have a player who goes to the European Championship and then to the Olympics, playing both competitions too much. The Federation knows our idea. But you have to talk to the players, because they are young and you have to manage it. We will try to prevent it from happening,” said the sports director.

Barcelona pays Deco for Rahinha through an investment fund

“In Barcelona almost everything is known,” Deco laughed during the interview. The sports director landed in the Catalan capital last September to replace Mateu Alemany. Before, in June 2023, he had already separated from his sports representation agency –D20– with which he brought Raphinha to FC Barcelona in the summer of the previous year. “A relationship between a sports director and a player,” Deco explained when asked about his current relationship with the Brazilian footballer.

“I told Raphinha my decision in June and we terminated the contract I had with him. I resigned from all positions as an agent,” explained the former representative. But he has also revealed that he continues to receive, through an investment fund, from Barcelona for the player’s transfer. “I agree on a commission with Barça and that’s it. When I made the decision to come, we couldn’t have any relationship to continue getting paid. What I did was sell to an investment fund, and charge what I had to charge,” he clarified. In addition, the former agent maintains some active companies that he had created during the ten years that he was working as a representative, ensuring that he had pending things “to collect and pay.” He has also confessed that Barcelona “knows everything” and that he is not doing “anything illegal”, with no intention of closing the companies, since he considers that there is no type of incompatibility.