La Liga
CONFIRMED! RONALD KOEMAN IS BARCELONA MANAGER
Former coach, Quique Setien knew he was a dead man walking the moment the Barca were battered last week by Bayern Munich.
Within hours, he was sacked. Now, Ronald Koeman is chosen as Barcelona’s new manager and will quit Holland this week to take over, with Quique Setien a dead man walking after Bayern Munich horror show
The former Everton boss Koeman emerged as the Catalan side’s key target in the wake of the Champions League quarter-final humbling, and the club plan to install him as the new man in the dugout this week after Setien’s departure has been confirmed.
Ex-Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino had also been touted as a possible candidate for the role despite vowing to never take over after managing rivals Espanyol, but now Koeman is set to take the side forward into a new era.
The Dutchman played for Barcelona for six years during a highly successful career that saw him win LaLiga four times, as well as the Copa Del Rey and European Cup.
He featured 350 times for the Spanish giants and continues to carry his Barcelona affections with him everywhere he goes. The 57-year-old even has a personalised ‘BAR’ number plate on his black Bentley Continental to reference his link to the club.
The 57-year-old also spent time as assistant manager to Louis van Gaal between 1998 and 2000 – only increasing his desire to become the main man.
He has made no secret of his hopes to return to the team in a managerial capacity, confirming he had a clause in his contract with Dutch FA that allowed him to move to Barca after Euro 2020.
Even though the competition has been delayed until 2021, Koeman earlier this year told Marca that the terms of the deal still stood.
‘The clause in my contract to go to Barcelona is for after the European Championship.
‘No date has been mentioned, so now it’s after the European Championship in 2021. But I haven’t thought about it for a second anyway.’
One of his first jobs after taking control of his beloved side will be to convince talisman Lionel Messi to commit his future to the club.
The Argentine has become frustrated with the hierarchy during a disappointing campaign and has been linked with moves to Italy and the Premier League.
His rise to one of the top jobs in football marks a spectacular turnaround for Koeman, who was axed as Everton boss in 2017 – leaving the Toffees in the relegation zone after a string of poor results.
But he managed to rebuild himself after being appointed as manager of his national side the following year – lifting an underperforming team who had failed to qualify for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup by securing qualification to Euro 2020.
With Barcelona now in a state of crisis, it is their club icon they turn to as they seek a similar rejuvenation following a miserable campaign.
After their hammering by the Bundesliga side on Friday night, one of the worst in the club’s history, Barca were left reeling, with Setien now a dead man walking. His sacking by the club is inevitable and expected imminently.
The former Real Betis manager was only appointed in January to replace Ernesto Valverde. Setien, 61, struggled with the pressures of managing the Nou Camp club as they lost out in the LaLiga title race to Real Madrid and exited the Copa del Rey at the quarter-final stage to Athletic Bilbao.
It was the first season since 2007-08 that Barcelona failed to win any silverware.
And there was little chance he would be kept on in the wake of Friday night’s eight-goal hammering at the hands of Bayern in Lisbon as Barcelona’s Champions League hopes were shot to bits.
At full time on Friday night, Setien told reporters: ‘Right now we feel enormous frustration and all we can do is make conclusions and think about the future.
‘Barca is a club that is so great that this will cause us a lot of damage and obviously some things will have to change.
‘The truth is this is a tremendously painful defeat.
‘Barcelona want to recover their identity. Right now, it’s too soon to think about whether I will stay or not. It doesn’t depend on me. We have to reflect, taking the situation into account and the importance that such a humiliating and painful defeat means.
‘I’m hurt, evidently, by such a hefty defeat.The way it came about has been tremendously painful.
‘I’m not worried about my future right now, but a defeat that is very painful for the club and the fans.’I know what a defeat of this calibre means.’
KOEMAN’S CAREER IN MANAGEMENT
- Vitesse – 2000-2001
- Ajax – 2001-2005
- Benfica – 2005-2006
- PSV – 2006-2007
- Valencia – 2007-2008
- AZ – 2009
- Feyenoord – 2011-2014
- Southampton – 2014-2016
- Everton – 2016-2017
- Holland – 2018-2020
Barcelona said their request for a permit to return to the Camp Nou for Sunday’s LaLiga match against Real Sociedad has been denied, with the city council highlighting safety and security issues with the revamped venue.
Barca had been hoping to return to a reduced-capacity Camp Nou with 27,000 spectators but have failed to obtain the necessary permits from Barcelona City Council.
Barca will instead host the match at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Montjuic, where they played during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons with renovations at Camp Nou now nine months behind schedule.
“We have spotted different elements that need to be fixed and have an impact in the safety and security of the stadium,” chief of civil protection Sebastia Massague said at a city council meeting.
Barca had to begin their LaLiga home campaign at the Estadi Johan Cruyff in their own training complex, where only 6,000 fans attended their match against Valencia on September 14, after a Post Malone concert left the Lluis Companys pitch in poor condition.
“The club is currently working on the new amendments that the council has shared today,” Barca said in a statement.
On Friday, the Catalan club also announced that their Champions League group stage match against Paris St Germain on October 1 would also take place at the Lluis Companys.
Barca are second in LaLiga, trailing leaders Real Madrid by five points but having played a game fewer.
-Reuters
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Villarreal midfielder Thomas Partey on Wednesday appeared in a London court and pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault involving three women.
Partey, a Ghana international, is accused of five counts of rape relating to two women, plus a charge of sexual assault against a third woman, between April 2021 and June 2022.
The alleged offences took place when Partey played for Premier League soccer club Arsenal. He left the club this summer and signed for Spain’s Villarreal.
The 32-year-old appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and enter his not guilty pleas.
Partey was released on bail ahead of his trial, which was listed for Nov. 2, 2026 and is due to take between six and eight weeks.
He was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59.2 million) in 2020 and became a key member of the English side’s first team, before his contract expired at the end of June.
Partey played for Villarreal in their Champions League game against Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.
He came on as a second-half substitute and was booed loudly by the Spurs fans every time he touched the ball.
-Reuters
Villarreal and Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey, who has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, walks outside Southwark Crown Court, in London, Britain, September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska
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Real Madrid on Tuesday denounced plans to stage a LaLiga match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami, warning the proposal could undermine football’s competitive balance and vowing to petition global governing bodies to block the move.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Monday approved the December 20 fixture at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which could become the first LaLiga match held abroad and the first European league fixture staged in the United States.
“Real Madrid wish to express to its members, supporters and football fans in general its firm rejection of the proposal,” the club said in a statement, revealing they have already urged FIFA, UEFA and Spain’s Higher Sports Council (CSD) to intervene.
The club accused the RFEF of making its decision “without informing or consulting the clubs participating in the competition” and argued that staging the match in Miami “violates the essential principle of territorial reciprocity” in home-and-away league formats.
Real further stated that the move would “alter the competitive balance” and grant “an unfair sporting advantage” to the clubs involved.
The club also warned that approving the proposal could compromise sporting integrity and “set an unacceptable precedent,” insisting any change of this nature should require “the express and unanimous agreement of all the clubs participating in the competition”.
The plan still requires approval from UEFA, US Soccer, CONCACAF and ultimately FIFA before LaLiga President Javier Tebas can realise his long-held ambition of taking Spanish football to the U.S.
-Reuters
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