Chile coach Pizzi quashes talk of taking over at Barcelona
The tactician's agent, Ricardo Schlieper, said that his client has an "important commitment" to lead the Copa América champions in Russia.
The Barcelona-based press on Tuesday named Chile coach Juan Antonio Pizzi as one of the candidates to succeed Luis Enrique as manager of Barcelona, but the former Camp Nou striker moved swiftly to distance himself from the soon to be vacant post.
“I spoke to Juan Antonio and this is not the moment to leave Chile,” his agent, Ricardo Schlieper, told Argentinean media outlet TyC Sports. “He has an important commitment with Chile.”
Barça job "tempting"
Schlieper added that the chance to take over at Camp Nou would be “tempting” for any coach and said: “For the Barcelona press to publish it, the interest in Pizzi must be true.”
Pizzi, who was born in Argentina but represented Spain at international level, has a release clause with the Chile Football Federation (FFC) set at six months of his annual salary, which stands at $1 million a year.
Russia World Cup
However, the FFC is confident that Pizzi, who led Chile to the 2016 Copa América title, will remain in charge of La Roja. “We’re talking about a very important club that any coach would like to move to but you have to remember that he has the opportunity to contest a World Cup with a competitive team,” noted vice-president Andrés Fazio.
