Former Barcelona and Manchester United goalkeeper Victor Valdes has reportedly declined the opportunity to return to the Camp Nou as a goalkeeping coach after he was handed the chance by newly-elected Barca president Joan Laporta.
During the elections, Diario Sport reported that a Valdes return could be on the cards if Laporta emerged winner, but that will not be happening after the plans fell through. According to reports, the reason for Valdes’s refusal to return to the Camp Nou to become a goalkeeping coach is that he is more interested in becoming a first-team coach and already got an offer elsewhere from an unnamed club.
He then reportedly chose the second option and declined the chance to join the restructuring that Laporta has planned to initiate at the club following the confirmation of his new position as the president of the Catalan giants. Laporta already held talks with Valdes before the elections and everything seemed to be in place for the former goalkeeper to take up the role at the club, but nothing of such will be happening anytime soon.
Valdes initially returned to the Camp Nou back in 2019 after calling time on his playing career and took up the role of the club’s academy coach. However, according to a confirmation on Barcelona’s website, he left the post after just a few months in office.
Diario AS reported then that the reason for his exit from the club back then was as a result of the feud he had with club official Patrick Kluivert which eventually compelled him to part ways with the Spanish giants.
During his playing career and his time at the Camp Nou, Valdes was a mainstay for Barcelona and played as many as 535 games for the club during the 12 seasons he spent there.