Jonatan Giraldez confirms Barcelona exit, reportedly bound for Washington Spirit: Will his style fit in NWSL?

Barcelona manager Jonatan Giraldez confirmed Monday that he will leave the club at the end of the season for an offer outside of Europe that he could not turn down.

“I communicated to the club a few days ago my intention to not renew my contract,” he said during a press conference on Monday, per ESPN. “I wanted the timing of the decision to allow the club the most time possible to plan for the good of the team. Also, on a personal level, I wanted to avoid the focus being on [my future] when we get to March, April-time when we are usually competing for titles.”

The 32-year-old’s deal with Barcelona expires at the end of the season, and he will leave after a successful three year spell with the club. He won Liga F in his first two seasons in charge and Barcelona currently boast a nine point lead atop the table this season, and also lifted the UEFA Women’s Champions League last season.

Giraldez also said that he only opted to leave because of an offer he received elsewhere that was superior to the one his current employer proposed. Giraldez, though, provided few specifics on his next destination other than the fact that it is outside of Europe.

“I can only say it’s outside of Europe. I would not want to compete against Barca,” he said. “When I make a decision, I look at many aspects. I have received much bigger offers than the one I have now. I assess many different things, not just money: the challenge, the sporting project and my family. It’s a professional and a family decision. It is to do with the objective of developing personally.”

Multiple reports have linked Giraldez to the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, which has had a coaching vacancy since October, when the club parted ways with Mark Parsons one year into his deal after they missed the playoffs. The Spirit have offered Giraldez quintuple his current salary at Barcelona, per Spanish outlet Relevo.

Spirit’s ambitious hire

Barcelona famously play a possession-oriented style, a framework Giraldez has excelled in first as an assistant and then as the team’s manager. Midfielders naturally serve as a focal point of his team, and the reigning Champions League winners boast some of the world’s best. Aitana Bonmati, Keira Walsh, and Alexia Putellas have emerged as some of the most technically gifted players in the game, and also possess a tactical flexibility that has allowed them to shine in different midfield spots.

Giraldez’s Barcelona team also gets the most out of their attacking talent, including Spain’s Women’s World Cup breakout star Salma Paralluelo and her club and country teammate Mariona Caldentey. That should be the most exciting news for the Spirit, since their roster includes the exciting attacking trio of Trinity Rodman, Ashley Sanchez and Ashley Hatch.

If Giraldez does end up coming to the nation’s capital, he would easily be one of the most accomplished incoming coaches in the NWSL. That reputation seems to suit Spirit owner Michele Kang just fine during her pioneering push to raise the bar in the women’s game — she is in the midst of building a network of women’s teams, most recently acquiring the Women’s Championship’s London City Lionesses and is nearing a deal to buy Olympique Lyonnais, the record Champions League winning side. It comes as no surprise, then, that Kang is driven enough to land Giraldez and would be willing to spend to do so.

That’s not the only reason her plan to hire the outgoing Barcelona manager is ambitious. The NWSL is slowly transitioning away from a more direct style of play, but has not been a destination for technical sides like Giraldez’s Barcelona. His experiences in the U.S. would serve as a first test for that particular style of play, but feels like a natural experiment for an NWSL team to conduct during the women’s game’s rapid tactical transformation.

The tactical switch forces one question: How quickly can Giraldez sell his tactical vision, especially if he shows up midseason? If he completes Barcelona’s season as expected, he would not free up until May — two months after the 2024 NWSL season begins. It’s worth asking, then, who might be entrusted to hold things down until he arrives, and if his transformation of the Spirit is a long-term project rather than a medium-term one.