Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez couldn’t make a trip with his crew to begin their pre-season tour in the United States on Saturday.
The Blaugrana flew off to the US to begin their 2 weeks tour in the country which will include different training sessions and pre-season matches, yet their manager has not had the option to go along with them on their journey because of a delay in documentation.
Xavi has visited Iran multiple times over the most recent five years, because of his previous relationship with Qatari club Al Sadd as both a player and manager, implying that he’s expected to give additional documentation to the US authorities to legitimize his purposes behind such countless visits to the Middle Eastern country – because of its relations with the US.
The necessary documents for his trip had been planned to arrive on Friday but there has been a minor setback, meaning that the coach of the Catalan giants must now wait until Monday for him to be able to join his squad in the US as he awaits for an update.
Xavi had travelled to the Barcelona airport with his players in hopes of being part of the journey as the club believed they had fixed the relevant requirement for him to travel, but the trip did not receive the green light and he had to remain in Catalonia.
Five Barcelona players were excluded from the tour as Xavi targets to seek exits for them from the club in the coming weeks. Goalkeeper Neto, defenders Oscar Mingueza and Samuel Umtiti, midfielder Riqui Puig and striker Martin Braithwaite were all removed from the squad as the club seeks to find buyers.
