Barcelona ‘called Rijkaard’ claim

Sport reports that Frank Rijkaard apparently turned down the chance to return to Barcelona as boss in January after the 1-0 defeat at Real Sociedad.

Barca appeared to be in turmoil at the time, with the departure of director of football Andoni Zubizarreta and club legend Carles Puyol’s announcement he was leaving, while Lionel Messi did not attend an open doors training session, leading to rumours of a bust-up with boss Luis Enrique.

It was situation, explained veteran Dutch journalist Jack van Gelder on Nos Studiso SPORT’s ‘De Wereld draait Door’ programme, that had the Catalans calling former boss Rijkaard – in charge at the Camp Nou from 2003 to 2008 – to see if he wanted to return to the club. According to the same journalist, Rijkaard turned them down.

Van Gelder’s claims seemed to be backed up this week by Henk Ten Cate, assistant to Rijkaard, in an article published by Sport1 focusing on the changes Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez had made to the mentality of current boss Luis Enrique’s team.

The article says Enrique must be thanked “for what he has achieved”, particularly in restoring Messi to his best form “after fighting with him following the Real Sociedad defeat”.

It also pointed out that “there were even rumours Enrique would go and that Rijkaard would return”.

The mess was so serious that Josep Maria Bartomeu decided to announce there would be elections for his presidential role at the end of the season.

Tags Luis Enrique Rijkaard Ten Cate
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