The last few weeks didn’t have a lack of any surprising news, from Hyderabad FC’s partnership news with Borussia Dortmund to the news of Portugese star Quaresma hopefully joining the ISL next season. But the surprises weren’t to end here as another big news just popped up about Hyderabad FC’s new head coach Albert Roca being approached to join European Giants or rather one of the biggest clubs in World Football, FC Barcelona.
According to Marcus Mergulhao via the TOI, the newly appointed head coach of FC Barcelona, Ronald Koeman has approached Hyderabad FC’s head coach Albert Roca to be a part of and work for the coaching staff at FC Barcelona.
After a disappointing end to the season with a 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League, Barcelona sacked Quique Setien from the head coach position and appointed Ronad Koeman to coach FC Barcelona. Koeman joined Barcelona just a week back after resigning as the gaffer of the Netherlands National Football Team and wants Albert Roca to join him at Barcelona along with their existing coaching staffs.
We already know that Albert Roca has also been at FC Barcelona previously for 5 long seasons between 2003 to 2008, but it’s really tough for anyone to know if Roca would be going back to Barcelona once again. No doubt it’s a big opportunity for Albert Roca to join Barcelona at this moment, but Hyderabad FC would be keen to keep Roca as well if looked upon from their perspective.
Everyone in India knows that the new ISL franchise, Hyderabad FC had a very poor season to begin with in the Indian Super League and had brought in Albert Roca for this season, even before the last season actually ended, which shows how much Albert Roca would add on to the team from Hyderabad.
Albert Roca has a contract of 2 years with Hyderabad FC, till May 2022. But, it would still be a task in hand for Hyderabad FC to keep Albert Roca with them. This is because, firstly, it would be tough for Roca to deny such an opportunity from a club like Barcelona and secondly, it won’t be easy for Hyderabad FC to keep a coach of Albert Roca’s stature, against his wish.
Albert Roca has been immensely successful in India with Bengaluru FC, and also took their side to the AFC Cup Finals. With such a good CV in hand and such great success, it would really be a tough ask for the Hyderabad FC Management to keep their head coach with them, if he doesn’t wish to stay.
Well, it will surely be a really tough decision, but whatever it is, the news has already come up as both a shock and a surprise to many of the fans here in India. It will be really great for Albert Roca to join FC Barcelona but would be equally difficult for Hyderabad FC at this moment, to loose the services of such a great coach after so much planning and so much expectations, just before the start of the new season.
It will be interesting to see how things shape up in the next few days and what eventually is decided by Hyderabad FC and Albert Roca. It’s just a wait of time before we know if Albert Roca would be staying back at Hyderabad FC or joining Ronald Koeman at FC Barcelona.