Manager Franc Artiga (Cambrils, 1976) will leave the bench of FC Barcelona’s Juvenil A in the coming days. The coach, who has been linked to La Masia since 2010, will take on a new role as first coach in the United Arab Emirates.
After gaining experience as a coach in the youth teams of several Catalan teams such as Reus or Nàstic, and even being a first-team coach at Amposta, Franc Artiga ended in FC Barcelona’s academy in 2010 and, showing undisputed loyalty and eagerness for training, has remained there and climbed to Juvenil A.
Artiga replaced the culé legend and former goalkeeper of the first team Víctor Valdés, whose disaventions with Patrick Kluivert (coordinator of the academy) and with the methodology of La Masia in general earned him the dismissal in bad ways. Since then, in October 2019, young people with a promising future such as Ilaix Moriba, Ansu Fati, Konrad de la Fuente or Arnau Tenas have been under his eye.
The coach’s leave is a professional decision, which Artiga sees as the next step in his professional career. According to Mundo Deportivo, the offer of the United Arab Emirates is “unrefusable”, and Artiga feels ready to make the leap out of Catalonia. Although his contract expired at the end of this season, the coach will depart in a few days, as he has already agreed with Kluivert and the club’s management.
This leaving will cause a movement of pieces inside the benches of the Barça academy. The name chosen to take command of Juvenil A will be Sergi Milà, former coach of Cadet A. Juvenil B, in principle, would mantain Óscar López, but not his second coach, Pol Planas, who will be in charge of Cadet B. Finally, Marc Serra, so far coach of Cadet B, will be promoted to Cadet A.
This weekend, Franc Artiga will coach his last meeting on the bench of Juvenil A. Almost a year and a half at the helm of a team that has achieved very remarkable standards of play within the Barça philosophy. Artiga leaves the team in second place in his group, only behind Espanyol. We wish him luck and success in his new project.
