Barcelona are in the race to find a new director of football as Mateu Alemany is likely to join Aston Villa at the end of the season.
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What is Espai Barça? All you need to know
Mateu Alemany
Mateu Alemany Font is a Spanish sports executive who is now the director of football at Barcelona. He was born in Mallorca in 1963 and earned a law degree in 1985 before completing a master’s degree in financial accounting.
Alemany began his career in 1990 as the deputy managing director of RCD Mallorca. Then, in 1993, he was appointed as the CEO of the club under the presidency of Bartolome Beltran.
Florentino Perez offered him the role of General Director of Real Madrid in 2000, which Alemany immediately rejected. Then he took over as president of RCD Mallorca, succeeding Guillem Reynes. Mallorca won the Copa del Rey in 2003, courtesy of goals from Eto’o and Pandiani, during his tenure.
Eto’o left Mallorca as their all-time LaLiga leading scorer in 2004, when Alemany arranged a €4.4m contract with Barcelona. It was a Mallorca club record at the time.
In 2017, Alemany was appointed as the general director of Valencia CF. However in 2019, he got sacked from his position.
Then in 2021, Alemany took charge as Barcelona’s football director under the presidency of Joan Laporta. Now, he is on the verge of joining Aston Villa as Barcelona have financial difficulties on matching Villa’s offer.
List of Candidates
Deco
Anderson Luis de Souza, better known as Deco, is the proprietor of D20 Sports Agency, which is based in Dublin, Ireland. He was instrumental in luring Raphina to Barcelona last summer, his most pricey client in terms of market value. As per multiple reports, Deco stands as the leading contender to take over Alemany’s position at Barcelona.
Source: https://twitter.com/BarcaUniversal/status/1655136235365580801
As a player, Deco was a Portuguese midfielder with Brazilian origin. He joined Barcelona from Porto in 2004 for a fee of €15m.
Deco won the UEFA midfielder of the year award in 2006, for his heroics in Barcelona’s UCL-winning campaign and was named as Barcelona’s player of the season in 2005/06. Further, he went on to win the Golden Ball in the Club World Cup Final against Internacional.
Overall, he made 113 appearances for the club, winning two LaLigas, two Spanish Super Cups and a UCL. In 2009, Deco joined Chelsea for a transfer fee of €10m before retiring in 2013 at Fluminense.
Antonio Cordon
Antonio Cordon is a Spanish professional football director who left Real Betis last February.
Antonio began his career at Villarreal and spent 17 years there. During his tenure Yellow Submarines reached two European semifinals (2005/06 UCL and 2010/11 UEL).
Then he was part of the AS Monaco side that reached UCL semi finals in 2017. During his time in Monaco, he played a key role in the sudden emergence of Mbappe. It was Antonio who convinced the club to promote the 17 year old Frenchman to the first team and in return Mbappe netted 26 goals that paved the way for his PSG transfer in the following season.
After leaving Monaco, he had a brief run with Ecuador National Team in 2020 before joining Real Betis and securing them consecutive European qualifications over the past 3 years and Copa del Rey in 2020/21.
Michael Edwards
Michael Edwards is an English sporting executive who left Liverpool last summer. The 43 year old Englishman is a free agent at the moment.
Edwards began his career as the chief analyst of Portsmouth in 2003. After spending six years there, Tottenham signed him as their chief analyst in 2009.
Edwards spent 2 years at Tottenham before Liverpool signed him in 2011. In 2013, he was promoted as the Head of methodology and later as the Technical Director in 2015.
In 2016, Edwards was appointed as the Sporting Director of Liverpool. During his six year tenure, Liverpool won a Champions League and signed multiple stars like Salah, Van Dijk, Alisson, Jota etc.
Fernando Carro
Fernando Carro de Prada is a Spanish football executive, who currently works as the CEO of Bayer Leverkusen. He was born in Barcelona in 1963 and is a member of FC Barcelona with access to season tickets.
Since 1980, he worked as a sports journalist for multiple newspapers in Spain, Austria and Germany.
In 2018, Fernando Carro joined Bayer Leverkusen after a successful career at Bertelsmann as an economic expert. Since his appointment Leverkusen have signed hot prospects like Patrick Schick and have promoted academy products like Florian Wirtz.
He currently holds a contract till 2027 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Tito Blanco
Vicente Blanco Sanchez, better known as Tito Blanco is a former Spanish footballer who currently works as the Academy Director at Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
He was part of the Barcelona youth setup from 1988 to 1994. However, he did not had a prolific career as a player.
After his retirement in 2010, he was appointed as the Sporting Director of AFE (Association of Spanish Footballers).
Then in 2016, Blanco joined Levante as their team coordinator. He spent three years there.
In 2021, Deportivo Alaves signed Blanco as their Advisor of Management.
After spending the 2021/22 season at Alaves, Blanco joined Real Oviedo next season, as their Sporting Director.
However, his time at Oviedo lasted short as RFEF appointed him as their Academy Manager in January 2023.
Five high-profiled sporting executives have their names listed, to succeed Mateu Alemany at Barcelona.
Who is your preferred choice? Comment Below
