MADRID, May 8 (Reuters) - Frank Rijkaard will leave Barcelona at the end of the season and former captain Pep Guardiola will take over as coach of the team, club president
Joan Laporta announced on Thursday.
Former Netherlands international Rijkaard took charge of
Barcelona in 2003 and led them to back-to-back league titles and
victory over Arsenal in the Champions League final in Paris in
2006.
However, his side have failed to win any silverware for the
past two seasons and suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat by
arch-rivals Real Madrid on Wednesday.
That defeat combined with Villarreal's victory over
Recreativo Huelva means the Catalans will miss out on automatic
qualification for the Champions League and cannot finish any
higher than third in the Primera Liga.
'Frank has been the leader of the team that led us to glory
in Paris, but the cycle is finished because the results haven't
gone our way in the last two years,' Laporta told a news
conference. 'The situation was very disappointing last season.
'We haven't been able to correct the errors that were
committed then and we have decided that Frank should be relieved
of his post at the end of the season.'
Rijkaard's contract was due to run to 2009.
Laporta, who made it clear that Rijkaard's assistants Johan
Neeskens and former player Eusebio would also be leaving the
club, said that Guardiola had been the board's unanimous choice
as the new coach.
'We believe in Pep Guardiola because he is capable of
leading this new sporting project. He is a man who guarantees
the continuation of a footballing concept that has led this club
to so much success.'
Born in Santpedor to the north of Barcelona, the 37-year-old
Guardiola made his name at Barca as a cultured midfielder in the
early 1990s when Johan Cruyff was manager.
He quickly established himself as a favourite at the Nou
Camp and became one of the key players in Cruyff's so-called
'Dream team' which won four consecutive league titles between
1991 and 1994 and the European Cup in 1992.
He also helped Spain win the gold medal in the Barcelona
Olympics and earned 47 caps with the senior national team.
Guardiola left Barcelona in 2001 to join Serie A side
Brescia but his career in Italy was disrupted when he tested
positive for nandrolone in November of the same year.
He served a four-month ban but strenuously denied any
offence and went through the courts to clear his name, finally
winning his case last October.
After spells in Qatar and Mexico, Guardiola announced his
retirement as a player in Nov. 2006.
He was appointed coach of Barcelona's B side last June and
has steered the team to the top of their group in Spain's
regionally-based tercera (fourth tier) division.
Laporta said he would give details of Guardiola's contract
at the end of the season. He also refused to be drawn on which
players would leave the club.
