Barcelona Femeni coach Jonatan Giraldez confirms departure at end of season

Barcelona Femeni coach Jonatan Giraldez has confirmed that he will leave the club at the end of the season. He will remain at the club until his contract expires in June 2024.

According to Relevo, Girdalez has been offered the vacant managerial position at NWSL club Washington Spirit.

The 32-year-old revealed that he had no plans to leave the Catalan club, but he decided to leave them after accepting another proposal.

Giraldez has already communicated his decision to Barcelona’s board in order to give the club time to formulate a contingency plan ahead of next season.

Jonatan Giraldez to leave Barcelona in 2024

“I communicated to the club a few days ago my intention to not renew my contract,” Giraldez said in a arranged news conference.

“I wanted the timing of the decision to allow the club the most time possible to plan for the good of the team. Also, on a personal level, I wanted to avoid the focus being on [my future] when we get to March, April-time when we are usually competing for titles.

“Since [sporting director] Marc Vives came in, we had been negotiating [a renewal]. There were things left to negotiate, relating to my staff, and during that impasse I received another offer which I decided to accept.”

Jonatan Giraldez to move to NWSL club Washington Spirit?

Giraldez replaced Lluis Cortes as Barça coach, having previously been part of Cortes’s staff, in 2021 and has enjoyed great success during his two years in charge.

Barcelona Femeni have won Liga F in each of the last two seasons, including winning all 30 of their league games in 2021/22. Moreover, they have also reached the last two Champions League finals.

Lyon beat them 2-0 in 2022, but they did beat beat Wolfsburg 3-2 after going down 2-0 in last year’s Champions League final.

After guiding them to the Champions League title, Giraldez was nominated for The Best FIFA Women’s Coach Award 2023.