The coach of Barcelona, Xavi Hernández, did not travel this Saturday with the rest of the team to the United States, where the Catalan club must play a series of pre-season friendly matches, due to an “administrative problem”, the Spanish press published this Saturday.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the coach traveled to Iran three times when he was still a player – at Al Sadd in Qatar – and the United States requires special authorization for anyone who has previously traveled to that country.
Xavi played the last game of his career as a footballer in Tehran.
According to the Spanish press, Barça realized the problem on Friday and thought they had found a solution, but once they arrived at the airport they were not allowed to board the plane and the team had to make the trip without their coach.
The club hopes to solve the administrative problem on Monday and Xavi could travel to Miami that same day.
He could thus direct the last training session for the Barça team before the friendly against Inter Miami at Lockhart Stadium on July 19.
For the tour of the United States, the DT summoned all the players except those who are in the process of leaving the club: Oscar Mingueza, goalkeeper Neto, Samuel Umtiti, Riqui Puig and Martin Braithwaite.
The new signings Raphinha, Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessié are part of the trip, but not yet Robert Lewandowski, whose incorporation seems imminent and who could travel to the United States in the coming days, according to the Catalan press.
