Barcelona confirm Ernesto Valverde as new head coach

Getty Images
Tom Doyle29 May 2017

Barcelona have confirmed Erneste Valverdo as their new head coach following the departure of Luis Enrique.

Valverde was widely expected to be handed the position after stepping down from his role as Athletic Bilbao coach, and will be tasked with restoring Barca's La Liga dominance following Real Madrid's title triumph this season.

The 53-year-old has agreed a deal at the Nou Camp to take charge for the next two seasons.

Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu said: "Valverde has the ability, the judgement, the knowledge and the experience. He promotes the youth players and he has a Barca way."

The news will also come as a relief to Tottenham fans after Mauricio Pochettino was repeatedly linked with the job during the second half of the 2016/17 campaign.

Pochettino has won many admirers around Europe after leading Spurs to a second-placed Premier League finish this season.

Spurs said in March that they were aware Pochettino had met Barca president Bartomeu, but the north London club were relaxed as they did not expect to lose the Argentine coach.

Pochettino has also spoken in the past of how joining Barca would be like moving to Arsenal after having been Spurs coach, with the 45-year-old making no secret of his long-held allegiance to Barca's fierce rivals Espanyol.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in