Jordi Cruyff has admitted he wants to return to management in the near future and declined the chance to stay at Barcelona in order to pursue his ambitions.

Cruyff was brought back to Camp Nou in the summer of 2021 to work alongside president Joan Laporta, taking a formal role as sporting director last summer, but Barcelona have confirmed he will step down this summer.

Explaining his decision to leave, Cruyff insisted he had long been planning for a return to the dugout this summer.

"Barcelona called me when the club was in a very difficult situation," he told The Athletic. "I was always going to answer that call, there is a special feeling for this club.

"But I’d been coaching and enjoying being a coach for five years before Barcelona. I was in China, then I took the Ecuador job. Then Covid-19 hit, so there were no games. Then I went back to China. Everything was fine but I decided to answer Barcelona’s call and did that for two years.

"Now, I want to return to being a coach, which is where I was before Barcelona. Barcelona offered me a longer deal last year, but I chose a shorter one because I felt I would go back to being a coach. It wasn’t a decision I made quickly, it was something I thought about for months. This is what I feel like doing now. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to work as a sporting director anymore, I am prepared for both roles, but right now I prefer to return to coaching. I have been analysing different options and it is about picking what feels right for me."

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Looking back at his time at Barcelona, Cruyff insisted he has fond memories of his work in the boardroom.

"We came from a difficult moment, with financial fair play issues and players leaving," he explained. "We not only survived that, but we also won the league. Now, when you look at the squad, we have one of the youngest teams in Europe. The present has been good and I think the future will be.

"I’ve enjoyed my two years at Barcelona working with Mateu [Alemany, director of football] and Xavi, with whom I was very close and very comfortable. We agreed, we disagreed, we all worked well as a group and I’m grateful for that.

"Football is a table with many chairs, and I’ve sat at three of them. I’ve been a player and experienced the highs and lows. I know how a player can feel, be it when they are injured or on form, because I’ve been there. [I know] How a squad player feels. I’ve been a sports director, which gives me another dimension because you have to think short, medium and long term with the planning of the team. And I’ve been a coach, with the pressures that come with that, such as from the media. I’ve always been able to separate the job descriptions and respect the others."

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This article was originally published on 90min as Jordi Cruyff explains reason behind Barcelona departure.