The bleeding of resignations, resignations and departures of executives from FC Barcelona does not stop. The next to leave the club will be Maribel Meléndez, the corporate director and fundamental piece in the financing of Espai Barça, who until now was the club’s highest-ranking executive after the goodbye, two years ago, of the club’s general director, Ferran. Revert.
According to information advanced by Mundo Deportivo, and confirmed by club sources, Maribel Meléndez plans to leave Barça in the coming days, apparently “for personal reasons.” The same justification that Reverter expressed to Laporta on February 8, 2022.
Meléndez’s will be a very sensitive loss in the club’s structure, which will increase its profile as a presidential entity as Joan Laporta is an executive president, who assumed the functions of general director of Reverter, and losing a profile of a solvent and professional executive like Meléndez .
In principle, the club will cover Meléndez’s loss with Manel del Río, the financial director, who will assume the duties of the corporate director.
Meléndez’s loss is added to that of two important names in the Espai Barça project. Previously, the director of the board responsible for the project, Jordi Llauradó, had already left (he resigned from his duties in January 2023 and resigned from his position in June 2023), and Ramón Ramírez, director of Heritage and Espai Barça, who also left the club in August 2023.
In the last two years, the Blaugrana club has experienced an incessant trickle of departures, resignations and dismissals of some of its most prominent executives, for reasons of various kinds.
One of the first to leave the club was police commissioner Ferran López, dismissed by the board from his position as Head of Security in November 2021, after just seven months at the club (he arrived in April 2021).
In February 2022, Ferran Reverter, who was the highest-ranking executive as general director of the club, announced his goodbye; a basic position in the structure of a company, which Joan Laporta assumed directly as executive president.
One of the most notable resignations was that of Jordi Cruyff as sports director, in May 2023. The football sports manager left the position on June 30 after having joined in September 2021.
Shortly after, in September 2023, it was Mateu Alemany, the director of football, who definitively left the club, which he had joined in March 2021. The Mallorcan had announced his goodbye in May to go to Aston Villa, but agreed to to remain in office by not reaching an agreement with the English club. After Deco’s arrival as sports director, he only lasted half a year more at the club.
Also in September 2023, Markel Zubizarreta left his position as sports director of Barça women. Two months later, in November 2023, he signed as sports director of the Spanish women’s team.
The penultimate to leave the club was, this February 2024, Mike Puig, a lawyer and football coach with a UEFA A license, who had replaced Xavi Martín as head of La Masia. In August he had been dismissed from his duties and found a place in the management of the Fundació Barça Genuine team.
Previously, footballer Gerard Piqué had also left the club in November 2022, giving up the year and a half of his remaining contract.
The next to leave – as far as is known -, having already announced their resignation from the position, are the coaches of the two soccer teams, Xavi Hernández and Jonathan Giráldez, of the Barça women’s team.
Although the most traumatic case was Leo Messi’s goodbye, on August 5, 2021. It all started with him, after having signed his renewal contract and Joan Laporta dispensed with the Argentine myth for not being able to pay his bill due to the situation. criticism of the club’s economy.
