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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has said it is “amazing” to have Xavi as a coach after completing his move to Barcelona.
Aubameyang joined the LaLiga giants after being released from his contract with Arsenal, agreeing a contract until June 2025 with an option to cut ties earlier, in June 2023. It includes a buy-out clause of €100million.
The 32-year-old fell out with previous manager, Mikel Arteta, resulting in him losing the captaincy at the Emirates Stadium and being left out of recent squads.
Speaking to the club’s official social media, Aubameyang spoke of his admiration for Xavi, a Barca legend and World Cup winner, saying: “I think that’s amazing to have [Xavi] as a coach. He has been a fantastic player that everyone knows, and I’m sure that as a coach he will bring us something that we will learn, definitely.”
The Gabon international also spoke of his pride in making the move to the Blaugrana, explaining that his main goal is to help them get back into the Champions League.
“I am very proud [to be here], especially because my family is Spanish as well from my mother’s side so I’m just really proud and happy to be here,” he said.
“My main goal is to help the team and to give everything I can to bring the team back in the Champions League. I am just happy to be here and I will try to give everything.”
Another January signing was La Masia graduate Adama Traore, who joined on loan from Wolves.
However, at a media conference to present the winger, it was another wide forward already at the club who stole the headlines as for the second day in a row, Barca president Joan Laporta openly criticised Ousmane Dembele for not agreeing to a January move away from Camp Nou.
The club had been hoping to ship the France international out, with Paris Saint-Germain reportedly agreeing terms with Dembele over the weekend, but a move did not materialise.
Barca are still struggling financially as the club attempts to bounce back from previous years of mismanagement, and on Tuesday at another news conference to reveal details of the forensic review into financial irregularities by the previous regime, Laporta responded to questions on Dembele, saying he could not understand why the player had not left in January.
He followed this up with more comments on Wednesday, telling reporters: “Our [contract] offer [to Dembele] expired on December 20 and after that, there was no other proposal. We saw a lack of interest in renewing and accepting our offer which was really good. We tried to fix things but there were no options available.”
Dembele, who played with Aubameyang at Borussia Dortmund, is out of contract in the summer, and Laporta has said it will be up to Xavi whether he plays for the club again, while also indicating his belief that the Frenchman – who has suffered numerous injuries since arriving in Spain – has been disappointing since his big money move in 2017.
“We have a player with a contract that expires in June and the player is at the disposal of the coach, so the coach is the one who will decide whether he plays or not,” he added. “But Xavi is just as surprised as all of us that Dembele has not renewed his contract.
“We invested a lot of money and we wanted to see that investment on the ground more often, but we came out a little disappointed.”
