Xavi Hernández has a plan, and it involves fewer late-night training sessions and more dinners at home. The former FC Barcelona coach stated on July 17, 2026 that his next move in football will be toward a national team role, specifically because the schedule is kinder to people who also happen to have families.
What Xavi actually said
Xavi made clear he is not stepping back from football, just repositioning within it. He expressed interest in coaching at the World Cup, UEFA EURO, the Africa Cup of Nations, and the Asian Cup, which is a list broad enough to suggest he is keeping his options genuinely open rather than angling for one specific job.
These remarks did not come out of nowhere. Back in May 2025, Xavi had already signaled that national team management aligned better with his personal priorities. The July 2026 statement reads less like a revelation and more like a man following through on something he had been thinking about for a while.
The timing matters. Xavi left Barcelona in 2025 after a tenure that started in 2021 and produced genuine highs, including a La Liga title in the 2022-2023 season, alongside the messier stretches that tend to define the back half of most managerial stints at elite clubs. He extended his contract in 2024, then departed the following year.
