Xavi Hernandez, the manager of Barcelona, had been once again refused admission to the United States and so was unable to lead his team in their pre-season opener against Inter Miami. His absence wasn’t much noticed, though, as theBlaugrana snatched a comfortable 6-0 victory, as their most prizedarrival, Robert Lewandowski, watched from the stands.
On Saturday, the Spaniard took his team to the airport, but he was unable to board the trip to the United States with them because of his earlier travels to Iran. Because of this, the club then arranged for Xavi to fly out to join his team on Tuesday, but he was again not given the go-ahead to go and supervise the club’s training sessions.
By virtue of his time spent playing and coaching for Qatari side Al Sadd, the 42-year-old has been to Iran three times in the previous five years. He was asked to present more paperwork to back up his trips to Iran because of the country’s fraught diplomatic relationship with the United States.Xavi Hernandez of Barcelona
When will Xavi Hernandez join Barcelona on the US tour?
The issue with Xavi Hernandez was proving to be very detrimental to the Blaugrana. Due to visa paperwork issues, the Catalan coach could not participate in the USA tournament.
The Catalan newspaper Sport, however, stated that the coach has been given the green light to fly to Madrid on Wednesday. He isplanning to visit the US embassy to settle any outstanding issues.
Then he is expected tohop on a jet to Miami to meet up with the rest of the team and assume his leadership once again. His brother and assistant manager, Oscar Hernandez, took charge of Barcelona’s first preseason game against Inter Miami in his absence.
The absence of the side’s visionary during the pre-season is unfortunate given the influx of new players, most notably Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. However, the good news is that he won’t have any trouble leading his squad against Real Madrid in El Clasicothis Saturday, June 23,in Las Vegas.