FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta Confirms Intention To Renew Xavi Hernandez’s Contract, Make New Signings

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has revealed his intention to renew the contract of head coach Xavi Hernandez while also remarking on making new signings.

Laporta held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to mark two years in the hotseat since winning a 2021 presidential election.

In summer that year, he was criticized for not approaching Xavi to become his head coach after unflattering results under Ronald Koeman.

This was said to be down to Xavi’s alleged closeness to Laporta’s main rival at the polls Vitor Font – though the legendary number ‘6’ never came out and endorsed Font which it was suggested might have effectively handed Laporta a second tenure in charge of Catalonia’s biggest club.

Laporta hired Xavi after Koeman was fired in the autumn, and he has backed the 43-year-old through an initial rocky patch to the Blaugrana’s current comfortable standing nine points clear at the top of La Liga.

Xavi’s contract expires in 2024, but Laporta used his press conference to communicate that the club should and most likely will offer him a fresh deal to occupy the dugout even longer.

“I have already thought about a renewal,” Laporta confessed. “I think we should renew him because he has earned it. He knows the house. He knows Barca. He doesn’t ask us for crazy things [as per transfers]. He perfectly understands the situation of the club.”

Though Barca are mired in debts and have been warned to shave €200 million ($212.5 million) from the wage bill, they have also been told by La Liga president Javier Tebas that they can’t make new signings in the summer as things stand.

Laporta is not fazed by this, however, and said the club “will surely sign a full-back” ahead of the 2023/2024 season.

“A central defender, it depends. We will try as far as we can to make signings. A striker, surely yes. Someone will have to leave. In midfield, I think we have a great one and I don’t think it’s necessary [to bring in new players],” Laporta continued.

“We have an academy that for sure provides players for the first team,” Laporta said, in reference to the famed La Masia. “Xavi must do this exercise of looking.”