Official: Deco, Barça’s new sports director

As expected, Anderson Luís de Souza Deco has been named the new sports director of Barça. The Brazilian will fill the void left by Jordi Cruyff‘s departure and will work (i.e. continue to work) side by side with Mateu Alemany. Deco, who has been in Barcelona for a month and a half working on planning the squad, will have a task on his hands as there are multiple fronts open regarding the future of first team. But first, he must announce what he is going to do with his representative agency, D20 Sports.

Although this Barça, and almost any Barça, is a presidential club, Deco still has a lot of work to do together with Mateu Alemany. The Brazilian must complete the squad requested by Xavi, which requires a right-back and an attacking midfielder. João Cancelo and Lo Celso are the club’s big targets. He must also accelerate the departures of at least two players - Lenglet and Dest are at the front of that queue, which will be key for Barcelona to increase its salary margin.

Football agency

Since he hanged up his boots in 2013, Deco (short for Decuzinho) embraced Jorge Mendes like so many others to work alongside him as an agent and founded his own company, D20 Sports, in which Raphinha is his star player. However, with the return to the presidency of Joan Laporta at Barça, Deco began, like Rafa Márquez (now the coach of Barça Atlètic), to letting himself be seen by Barcelona until Laporta himself acknowledged that he was working externally with the club (without leaving his agency) as a specialist in Brazil. Deco also maintains an excellent relationship with the former brother-in-law of the president, Alejandro Echevarría, who worked on a project with Jaume Ferrer, former director of the Laporta’s first board. Guim Laporta, son of the Barça president, would also work in Gabon. In July 2015, it was... Leo Messi who was in Gabon, to inaugurate a stadium in Port Gentil. Those links to Gabon could make sense these days at Barça. Alejandro Echevarria, Deco, Messi...