Copa Del Ray: Athletic Club knocks Barcelona out to reach semis
It was another disappointment for Barcelona, as the club was expecting to go to the Copa del Rey semifinals for the second straight season.
Barcelona on Wednesday officially declared the appointment of Ronald Koeman as their new manager on Wednesday. Replacing, Quique Setien, the 57-year-old Dutch man signed a two-year deal with the Catalan giants.
“FC Barcelona and Ronald Koeman have reached an agreement for the Dutchman to take over as first team coach until June 30, 2022,” the club said in a statement.
Koeman, who has been a Barcelona footballer during his playing days, returns to Camp Nou with coaching experiences in the Premier League, LaLiga, the Dutch league, the Portuguese league and also on the international stage with the Netherlands.
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In his six seasons as a Barca player, Koeman made 264 official appearances, scoring 88 goals, many of them from his trade mark free kicks on his way to becoming the highest scoring defender in the club’s history.
Koeman had claimed 10 trophies as a blaugrana which included four La Liga titles, a European Cup, a Copa de Rey, a European Super Cup and three Spanish Super Cups. The European Cup title, incidentally, was Barcelona’s first and Koeman was their hero in the final.
Koeman was one of the leaders of the ‘Dream Team’ under coach Johan Cruyff and after his six seasons with the blaugranes, he finished his career back in his native Holland playing for Feyenoord. After retirement in 1998, he returned to Barca as a member of the coaching staff before leaving for Vitesse in 1999 to begin his coaching career.
He began his coaching career at Barcelona as first team assistant coach and then as coach of Barca B in the 1998-99 season.
Setien was earlier sacked after their embarrassing 2-8 defeat against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of Champions League.
The club confirmed the decision in an official statement issued on Monday following an emergency directors’ meeting that was called in the wake of the crushing defeat.
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