Josep Maria Bartomeu presents his football project as a Barcelona presidential candidate
Josep Maria Bartomeu, candidate for the presidency of Barcelona, presented this morning his football project, from the professional field to the training and women's area. Accompanied by Jordi Mestre, vice president of the sports area until now, they explained how they want to divide the structure into different areas. As he warned last week, the businessman still does not want to give names, unlike other candidacies. In this sense, and after the dismissal of Andoni Zubizarreta at the beginning of the year, Bartomeu has had a chosen figure for months, but prefers to keep their identity. If the idea has not changed, which it shouldn't, the chosen person will be Robert Fernández, former footballer of Valencia and Barça, among others, to take care of the functions of technical secretary.
Bartomeu and Mestre assured that "above any area, the professional one stands out." In this sense, they said that "we will have a technical secretary, of whom we do not want to reveal the name. We want him to have been involved in Barcelona so that he understands the concept of Barça's football and ball care. He will be in charge of looking for the necessary pieces. He will travel to see players and with the team. He must have a great relationship with the coach."
Regarding professional training football, the former presidents analyzed together with Mestre that "this time we add the Juvenile B, since the players in this category will have a contract with the club. We emphasize the word training, since from the reserve team to the teams that follow in descending order they are for training purposes."
"Pedro: 'He is part of the team for the next season. He already was part of the first treble and now we want him to repeat. I hope he doesn't want to leave. The coaches want him to play, now how much he plays depends on the coaches.'"
"Abidal would have a place: 'We already have some defined names. When I left the club, I had a relationship with the club through the foundation. He was responsible for representing Barça at the presentation of the tour we will do next week.'"
"Barça B: 'We don't want the reserve team to be promoted by playing football and not in the offices, paying money.'"
"Barça B Coach: 'We still don't reveal names. Now what we want is for the club members to see everything we have worked on. Our best option is the project, because of how it is organized, how it fits and how we see it. The person in charge of professional training football will choose the coach, not us.'"
"Player exits from Barça: 'Puyol decided to leave Barcelona last year due to physical problems. If you review it, you will see that he left in a big way, as well as Xavi, two farewells that were highly praised from outside.'"
"Luis Enrique, General Manager?: 'Today's presentation shows clearly what the structure is like. It is evident that the coach will make decisions, but he will never be above the sporting director, as was said.'"