Xavi Pascual has broken his silence on his decision to leave Barcelona after returning to the club for a second stint that ultimately lasted only a few months.
The 54-year-old coach returned to Barcelona in November 2025 to replace Joan Penarroya, helping stabilize the team during a difficult period before surprisingly deciding to leave at the end of the season and take over the ambitious Dubai project.
Speaking on Catalunya Radio’s El Suplement, he addressed the circumstances behind his departure and made it clear that the issue was not related to money, but rather to a growing feeling that Barcelona was no longer the right place for him.
Xavi Pascual knew Barcelona might not be the right place
Xavi Pascual admitted that his decision to return to Barcelona was complicated from the beginning.
“It is a multifactorial issue, and getting into that is always delicate. Everyone has their own point of view. It was very difficult for me to come back, but as a Barcelona fan, I felt the responsibility to come and lend a hand at a very delicate moment for the basketball team and the club, with presidential elections taking place. It was difficult for me because I already saw that perhaps it was not my place or my moment, but in the end I did it.”
Once he returned and experienced the club from the inside again, those doubts became stronger.
“Once I was inside and saw how the club worked, I saw that it was not my place, that I could not do my job well or the way I thought I could do it or wanted to do it. It was nobody’s fault. I am simply who I am, a person who has evolved over time and who sees things differently.”
Rather than pointing the finger at any individual, Pascual described the situation as a mismatch between himself and the environment around him.
“As in every job, in order to do things well, you have to feel that it is the right place, and the same applies to the company and the employee. Everything has to be aligned. I did not feel that it was the right place, and that is why I warned them as early as possible, so as not to condition the future of the team and so that the club would have plenty of time to find its own path. In the end, you always try to do things as well as possible, in the most honest way possible, but things did not end up working out.”
A second Barcelona stint that never developed as expected
Pascual’s return naturally generated expectations because of what he achieved during his first spell in Barcelona. He spent almost a decade at the club and built one of the most successful eras in its basketball history.
However, he does not believe the weight of those memories prevented his second stint from working.
“I do not think the good memories from my first spell worked against me. The team was what it was and we could not change it. We took it as far as we could. We reached the Liga Endesa final, without any reinforcements and with many injuries.”
Xavi Pascual also acknowledged that he had previously discussed the difficulty of returning to the same club with Pep Guardiola.
“Pep Guardiola is very intelligent. In fact, we had talked about it, about how second spells are very complicated and that it is also the case at Barcelona. But I found myself in a situation where, despite having said no several times, I eventually decided to take on the responsibility that I felt I had to assume, and I do not regret it.
I think I helped bring a little stability at a complicated moment for the club and, as a Barcelona fan, I am happy with what I contributed.”
Pascual rejects money as the reason for leaving Barcelona
One of the most obvious narratives surrounding Pascual’s departure was that the financial attractiveness of the Dubai project played a decisive role. Pascual rejected that explanation outright.
“Money was not the reason, not at all, but it is normal for people to think that way. In the end, everyone has an opinion and believes they know the truth. You have to respect that this is part of the business.”
He went even further, explaining that financial considerations could not have been the deciding factor because he had turned down more lucrative opportunities before returning to Barcelona.
“If it were about money, I would not have returned to Barcelona, because I had higher offers, and I would not be where I am now either, because I also had higher offers.”
Pascual also stressed that his relationship with Barcelona president Joan Laporta has not been damaged by his decision to leave.
“When I left, I never pointed to the club as being guilty. Simply, Xavi Pascual and Barcelona are two parties that were together for 10 years, then we were apart for almost another 10 years, and we have evolved in different directions. I am not the same person and the club is not the same either. And that’s it. My relationship with Laporta remains intact, we have a very good relationship. I explained to him how I felt and he respected me from the very beginning, as he always has. Nothing has changed and nothing will change.”
