Andoni Zubizarreta, former goalkeeper of the Catalan club, is continuing his service to the club as Sporting Director and says Barcelona are on the right track to get back to the top but will not change their approach to do so.

As a player ‘Zubi’ had many qualities, including his level-headedness and superb positioning between the sticks. In 1986 he joined FC Barcelona as a replacement for the legendary Urruti. He was the mainstay of the famous ‘Dream Team’ and was, along with Koeman, the hero of the Wembley final with a series of miraculous, decisive interventions. ‘Zubi’ was also captain of the club for several seasons, and was noted both on and off the pitch for his serenity and psychological balance, which he was constantly able to transmit to the other players in order to get through the most difficult of match situations.

The 1987 La Liga player of the year is confident of future successes at Camp Nou amid speculation of a crisis in Cataluña despite the club winning the domestic league title and reaching the semi-finals of both the Copa de Rey and Champions League.

According to Zubizarreta, the league title is the fruit of an idea. Speaking to the club’s official website Zubizarreta said: “We have to be clear where we’re coming from.  We have to stick to our style and Tito accepted the challenge of maintaining it.  We’ve tried to do that the best way we know how.  We stick to this style even though it’s sometimes not enough for us to win, like the day against Bayern.

“We have to keep on developing this idea and that’s how we’ll look at it at the beginning of the next campaign”.  Zubizarreta commented that most of the players needed to develop this style are already at the Club: “If we look at our squad, 80% of the players that would interest us are already part of FC Barcelona.  As always we’ll analyse what needs to be improved but the base is solid and we’ve already got it.”

Zubizarreta has been sporting director since 2012. The Spanish keeper starred in four Wold Cups and three European Championships on his way to making 126 appearances for his country. Zubizarreta could look back at a very successful career having won many honours including, six Spanish league championships, three Spanish Cup titles, a European Cup Winners’ Cup title and a European Champions Cup title. He played more than 600 league games in Spain and won 126 caps, both are Spanish records.

Club History:

• Alaves (1979-1980) 0 Apps
• Athletic Bilbao (1980-1986) 169 Apps
• Barcelona (1986-1994) 301 Apps
• Valencia (1994-1998) 152 Apps

Honours

Club

• La Liga: 1982/83, 1983/84 (both Athletico Bilbao), 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1993/94 (all Barcelona)
• Copa del Rey: 1983/84 (Atletico Madrid), 1987/88, 1989/90 (both Barcelona)
• Supercopa de Espana: 1984 (Atletico Madrid), 1991, 1992 (both Barcelona)
• UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1988/89 (Barcelona)
• UEFA Champions League: 1991/92 (Barcelona)
• UEFA Super Cup: 1992 (Barcelona)
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1998 (Valencia)

Individual

• Spanish Player of the Year: 1987
• Zamora Trophy: 1986/87