Rafa Márquez will return to Barça to replace Sergi Barjuan at the head of the subsidiary

Rafa Márquez, a former FC Barcelona footballer, will replace Sergi Barjuan as Barça Atlètic coach.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
28 June 2022 Tuesday 14:54
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Rafa Márquez will return to Barça to replace Sergi Barjuan at the head of the subsidiary

Rafa Márquez, a former FC Barcelona footballer, will replace Sergi Barjuan as Barça Atlètic coach. The sports area is finalizing the details of hiring him to make his appointment official. The entity did communicate that Sergi Barjuan, who has one year left on his contract, will continue to be linked to the Barça football department. The club is working on a new organizational chart that will be announced in the coming days.

The decision to replace Sergi Barjuan has been considered and by mutual agreement. As this newspaper learned a month ago, the until now coach of the subsidiary met with vice president Rafa Yuste and also with the director of grassroots football, José Ramón Alexanko, where he conveyed certain doubts about continuing to lead the position. In his first year as coach of the subsidiary where he arrived to replace García Pimienta, Barjuan was left at the gates of the promotion playoff, closing the 2021-22 season with 57 points in group 2 of the First RFEF, with a balance of 16 wins, nine draws and 13 losses.

At the club they value his ability to manage the first team as interim coach in November when Ronald Koeman was fired. While work was being done on the arrival of Xavi Hernández, Barjuan managed the first team in three games. At the Camp Nou against Alavés (1-1), in the Champions League against Dinamo Kiev (0-1) and in Vigo against Celta (3-3).

When the decision was made, the sports area began a round of contacts to replace him. Among the candidates was Javier Mascherano, head of the Argentine U20 team. Another of the names that was on the table and that he liked a lot is Ludovic Giuly, however his financial claims were very high and the Frenchman finally chose to land on the Olympique de Lyon bench.

Now the entity is already working on the landing of Rafa Márquez, who already sounded like a candidate to train the subsidiary when Joan Laporta won the elections. The harmony between the two has always been very good. It should be remembered that in 2003 Márquez was the second signing of Joan Laporta's first presidential stage and defended the Blaugrana colors until 2010. Now at 43 years old, Márquez is presented with his first opportunity as a coach.