One day after confirming he turned down an offer to coach Barcelona, Xavi Hernandez earned his second trophy as a manager, leading Al Sadd to victory in the Qatar Cup on Friday.
Al Sadd beat Al Duhail 4-0 in the final as the club won their seventh title in the competition, which was established in 1995.
Al Sadd’s nearest competitor, Al-Rayyan has won four titles.
Sources told ESPN last week that the the 39-year-old had turned down an offer from Barcelona to replace Ernesto Valverde as manager, and he confirmed Blaugrana’s approach on Thursday.
Barcelona fired Valverde on Monday and replaced him with former Real Betis and Las Palmas manager Quique Setien.
“It’s true that I received an offer from Barcelona,” Xavi said earlier Friday. “[Barcelona directors] Eric Abidal and Oscar Grau made the offer, but I didn’t accept it because I felt it was too soon for me to coach Barcelona. That doesn’t mean it’s not still my dream to coach Barcelona one day.”
In addition to the Qatar Cup win, Xavi also led the team to the SuperCup win in 2019, also by defeating Al Duhail.