One of Víctor Font's strengths in his program was his sports project. But until now, only small outlines of the organization chart had been known, with the presence of Xavi Hernández as general manager, but without revealing the complete organization chart, both at the level of names and positions.
This morning, Víctor Font has made his sports project official. The big name that joins the structure of the candidate's program is Jordi Cruyff, who would be the sports director in football, that is, the maximum responsible for the signings and sports structure, at the same level as the general manager.
Above the sports director would only be the general director of sports, a new figure in the structure of a sports club, who would occupy Juli Lopez. Former Barça footballer, Gerard López's middle brother, with a business degree from ESADE, noted the anecdote that Johan Cruyff always called him “soccer player” because of his university concerns during his time as a footballer. The general director of sports would be at the same level as the CEO, the club's top executive.
Under the football sports director would be the figure of the technical secretariat, which would have two people. One will be Tito Blanco, former vice president of the Association of Spanish Footballers, and the other has not been able to give his name yet due to confidentiality, but on everyone's lips was the name of Carles Puyol.
Font explained that the first team coach will be Ronald Koeman, while that of the subsidiary will continue to be García Pimienta. In any case, the candidate clarified that “If things go wrong this season, Xavi Hernández will be the coach next season”, making similarities to Alex Ferguson's situation at Manchester United.
The head of grassroots football will be Joan Vilà, sports mentor of Xavi Hernandez and that for many years he was in charge of the methodology area of Barcelona, with the shared help of Albert benaiges, discoverer, among others, of Andres Iniesta. One of the novelties would be a school for coaches as training in the Blaugrana DNA.
Other sections
Regarding the professional sections, the heads of each section have not yet been made known, in most cases because “they still have contracts in force,” as he explained. Juli Lopez.
Two new cross-cutting areas will be implemented: a behavior area and a talent management area. The first will be coordinated by the psychologist Inma Puig and the second by the physiotherapist Emili Ricart, right hand of Ramon Cugat.
Likewise, he announced two new non-professional sections for the club in the event of being the winner on January 24: synchronized swimming and chess.
