In the matter of just 14 days, Barcelona lost the entire sports sector. In early May, director of football operations Mateu Alemani announced his departure a year before the end of his contract, while the Catalan club confirmed today that sporting director Jordi Cruyff will not extend his contract, which expires in a month and a half. The duo that managed Barcelona’s transfer policy in the last two years and during which players such as Roberto Lewandowski, Jules Kounde, Raphinha and Ferran Torres arrived at the Camp Nou want new challenges. According to the Spanish media, the departure of Alemany, whose future could be in Aston Villa with Unai Emery, is not connected to Cruyff’s decision to leave. In the middle of these events are Barca fans, who just want to know who will be the new person primarily in charge of negotiations, buying and selling football players, and currently the main favorite and practically the only concrete option is the former ace of this club, the Portuguese Deco.Deco is Barcelona’s #1 candidate to replace Mateu Alemany as director of football. If he joins the club, he would have to stop working as an agent.— @mundodeportivo pic.twitter.com/fp2sPzWfxq— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) May 7, 2023 Catalan ‘Mundo Deportivo’ report that the only thing remaining in this deal is Deco’s signature, and Marca also reports the same. Therefore, if there are no surprises, the largest European stadium will once again watch the tandem Xavi-Deco. Admittedly, this time in significantly changed roles, but they will definitely have an influence on each other, like they did in the past, in 122 games they played together.Catalan revolution and mild fear of consequencesBarca president Joan Laporta addressed Deco’s potential return in interviews with local RAC 1 and TV3 yesterday.”Deco is already working with us as a representative of the club in Brazil. He could jump into the technical secretariat and take Alemany’s place. I already tried to hire him a year ago, but then it was not possible. We have been talking for a long time and it seems that he is now a more realistic scenario. I would like him to be the new Txiki Begiristain, but he will have to leave his agency for the representation of footballers,” said Laporta, who a week ago already met with Deco, while Xavi was also present.Messi’s congratulations to Barca, Laporta aims to get him backDeco mediated the 58,000,000 euro transfer of Raphinha from Leeds to Barcelona last summer and was one of the most important persons involve d in this deal. And Laporta’s statement hints at the huge expectations of stepping into the shoes of the legendary sporting director of the Catalans, Txiki Begiristain. From 2003 to 2010, Txiki brought names such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry, Dani Alves, Yaya Toure, Gerard Pique, and Deco to the Camp Nou. Barcelona has not had such an operative in the sports sector in the last 13 years. In 2012, Txiki agreed to be part of the powerful project of Manchester City, in which even today everything is shiny when it comes to player transfers.##NAJAVA_MECA_7261890##Andoni Zubizaretta was the sporting director until the middle of the last decade and during his tenure Barcelona signed David Villa, Javier Mascherano, Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitić and Giordi Alba. After Zubizaretta, people like Robert Fernandez, Erik Abidal and Ramon Planes were in charge before the Alemani – Cruyff duo was established.
