Who will replace Ronald Koeman as Barcelona's head coach? Check out list of candidates

Ronald Koeman's career as Barcelona head coach finally came to end after he was sacked by the club after being defeated by Rayo Vallecano. The former Barcelona player who had taken the reigns just 14 months back leaves the club stranded in 9th position on the LaLiga points table. With Ronald Koeman fired, Barcelona will want to replace him with a new manager as soon as possible. We take a look at potential candidates for who could take over the vacant manager seat at Barcelona. 

Ronald Koeman sacked: Potential candidates to replace Ex-Barcelona manager

Xavi

Former Barcelona midfielder and current coach of Saudi Arabia said Al-Sadd, Xavi Hernandez is favourite to land the managerial job with the player himself expressing a desire to take up the post. Xavi spent 17 years at Barcelona as a player before moving to Al-Sadd in 2015. In total, Xavi won 25 major honours with Barcelona including eight LaLiga titles and four Champions League titles. Xavi had been earlier approached to take the job to replace Ernesto Valverde however, the World Cup winner explained that the 'circumstances' and 'timing wasn't right'.

Marcelo Gallardo

Marcelo Gallardo has been in Barcelona's radar for a long time and was earlier touted to take the managerial role from Ernesto Valverde. However, the current River Plate boss turned down the offer to coach the Catalan club. With Ronald Koeman being the latest manager to exit the Catalan club, Barcelona could look towards the 45-year-old River Plate coach who has won 12 trophies in his time in charge of the club. However to persuade Gallardo to leave the Buenos Aires giants mid-season will be difficult.

Erik ten Hag

Will Barcelona gamble on Dutchman to try to turn their on-field fortunes is a major question but the way Ten Hag has proven his mantle at Ajax also makes for his case. He has twice won the Eredivisie title with Ajax and almost took the team to the Champions League final in 2019, only for Tottenham to knock them out of the competition.

Antonia Conte 

The Italian has been out of management after leaving Inter Milan and has been strongly linked to Manchester United job with Ole Gunnar Skoljaer place in Jeopardy. However, Barcelona will look to persuade Conte as the club would not have to pay any compensation to appoint him. Conte's departure from San Siro amid Inter's financial crisis does raise questions over whether he would want to go to Barcelona who also are going through financial difficulties.