Jonatan Giráldez will leave FC Barcelona at the end of this season. The Vigo coach ends his contract on June 30 and has already communicated his decision not to renew to the board and his staff. Everything indicates that he will head to the American league, with a succulent economic proposal on the table.
Michel Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit, the team in which the American star Trinity Rodman plays, was in Barcelona in November. The American businesswoman, who was in the Montjuïc box during the women's classic, is also the majority shareholder of Olympique Lyonnais since last spring.
Giráldez, 32, will say goodbye after his third season leading the team. He arrived in 2019 at the hands of Lluís Cortés and after three years as Balaguer's assistant he took over the reins of the team. In his first two seasons he has won two Leagues and a Champions League and created a more versatile Barça, capable of adapting to more scenarios and with players capable of developing more roles within the team. Finding a replacement will not be easy. The coaching market in women's football is not that extensive and the club's coffers do not allow for many efforts. Furthermore, the technician who arrives must know the Barça style well, so the options are reduced.
Giráldez's goodbye was leaked from the club to the press on Thursday, hours before the Christmas dinner with all the professional sections and employees, and caught the players by surprise, who, at least for the most part, did not know that the intention of the technician was to leave. His departure adds to another more than sensitive loss such as the departure of Markel Zubizarreta and leaves the club in a complicated situation full of unknowns. Without one of the best sports directors in Europe and with a precarious economic situation, Barça must find a replacement on the bench and ensure the continuity of key pieces of the locker room who are out of contract this summer.
Up to eight footballers end their contract on June 30: Alexia Putellas, Mariona Caldentey, Lucy Bronze, Asisat Oshoala, Marta Torrejón, Sandra Paños, Gemma Font and Mapi León. The renewal of the latter is practically closed, but the negotiations with others such as Alexia Putellas are being more complicated. Although FC Barcelona's financial cuts will not affect the women's section, the club has no intention of increasing its investment, so there is no money to undertake the increases that contracts such as those of the two-time Ballon d'Or winner deserve.
The feeling from within is one of total uncertainty. There are many doubts about what the club's project is and whether it will continue to bet on one of the teams that has had the most success in recent years.
