(Football news) Former Barcelona and Portugal international Deco is leading the race to become Barcelona’s new sporting director after Mateu Alemany joined Unai Emery at Aston Villa. Deco has been working as an agent ever since he retired from football and since then he has a close relationship with Barca president Joan Laporta. He is Raphinha’s representative and has subsequently helped oversee the deal that saw him join Barca from Leeds United for over €50 million.

Barca are heading towards a massive change behind the scenes as Alemany informed the club of his decision to experience the Premier League. He will join high flyers Aston Villa after they stated that he was receiving an offer that was “too good to turn down.” Alemany had joined Barca in 2021 and has since then worked alongside sporting director Jordi Cruyff, but now his future at the Camp Nou looks uncertain after his contract expires in June.

If Cruyff leaves then Barca’s recruitment department would undergo a massive overhaul before the end this season only. Barca over the years had several directors like Andoni Zubizarreta, Robert Fernandez, Raul Sanllehi, Pep Segura, Eric Abidal and Ramon Planes were a few who have held positions of power during the last decade or so. Deco emerges as the perfect candidate because of his relationship with Laporta and the fact that he has close ties with big players as well . He is also very close to Alejandro Echevarria, who is one of Laporta’s closest officials and helps him in all the business relations for the club

Born in Brazil, Deco’s knowledge about South American football and Barca are keen to explore that market, the likes of Real Madrid have found world class players using the same strategy.. One major problem is that he works as an agent through his own company D20 Sports which could act as a conflict of interest. Antonio Cordon, Jesus Angoy and Fernando Carro are among the other names on Barca’s long list for Director of football. Laporta was originally interested in appointing Ralf Rangnick two years ago but now he can’t appoint him since he is the permanent manager of Austria.

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