The Dutch Ronald Koeman, Barcelona coach, will have tomorrow in Seville the possibility of lifting his first title with the Catalans, in a turbulent season for the Catalans that the ‘oranje’ has been able to reverse to compete in LaLiga and fight for the cup title.
Koeman arrived at the Catalan club two days after the dismissal of Quique Setién, who sat on the bench in that 2-8 game against Bayern. He came to rebuild a team in depression and little by little he has been redirecting the course of Barça.
Therefore, being able to fight for a title this season, in which many thought it would be a transitional campaign, is not a success, but at least it is a declaration of intent from a coach who has never lowered his arms and has been looking for solutions until you hit the key. If Barcelona takes the title – his thirty-first in history – it would be the first for the Dutchman as Barça coach, in his first season at the club, and the third for him.
And it is that Koeman conquered a Cup as a Barça player, which he won in 1990, and another at the head of Valencia, in this case in 2008.
As a soccer player, he won it in Valencia and against Real Madrid, in a match that meant the change of cycle in Spanish football, the passage of Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream team’ over the ‘Quinta del Buitre’.
Barça won 2-0 with goals from Guillermo Amor and Julio Salinas against a Madrid that had won four consecutive leagues. Cruyff’s team, which had already won a Recopa, took a title to continue growing. He proved it the following season, winning the first of four consecutive leagues he achieved, and two years later he won the European Cup at Wembley, with that historic free-kick in extra time by Ronald Koeman.
He won the Cup in 1990 as a Barça player and in 2008 he won it as a Valencia coach. He eliminated Real Unión, Betis, Atlético and Barça. In the final, played on April 16, 2008 at the Vicente Calderón, they defeated Getafe 3-1 and won their seventh Copa del Rey. As a player, Koeman won three Dutch Cups, one with Ajax (1985-86) and two with PSV Eindhoven (1987-88 and 1988-89); and as a coach with Ajax in 2001-02.
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