What convinced Barça coach Jonatan Giráldez to join the Washington Spirit | TWG Exclusive Interview

Men in Blazers' Roger Bennett recently sat down with former FC Barcelona Femení coach, Jonatan Giráldez in Washington D.C. as he begins his new adventure as coach of the Washington Spirit.
In this in-depth conversation, Jonatan explains why he chose to leave Barcelona, how owner Michele Kang sold him on the project, how he sees Spirit stars Trinity Rodman and Croix Bethune fit into his ideas, and what he hopes to achieve in the nation's capital.
#NWSL #washingtonspirit #fcbarcelona #barca
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[@oshea03]

Great interview! He is an incredibly intelligent tactical manager and lives and breathes futbol, and the reason Spain's national team are winning, since most of his Barça players play for them. What a great hire for the Spirit. Although I would have loved to have had him as the USWNT manager. What a force they would be under him. Emma is great, but not as good as Jonatan. His passion for the game and winning is obsessive. The cross country 6-7hr game travel will be hard for him to get use to 😬. unlike the few hrs travelling in with barça.

[@graceobey965]

i would like to see his new team have friendly games with barca femini

[@oshea03]

@@graceobey965 that would be incredible. There's arsenal and chelsea vs WAS in august which should be interesting

[@unknownnamerealpicture]

@@graceobey965 that would be good and maybe a year or so. Let him have time to develop American players implement his ideas and then let them play. The new FIFA Cup is coming up I believe in a few years, isn’t it? For clubs. That will be interesting. I have a feeling if he’s still here, he will face his old side.

[@nouvelhomme8990]

He seems very thoughtful and tactful. I like how he didn't directly address the inferior quality and steep drop off in competition in Spain and the Women's Champions League. The little hints, though. Welcome to the big leagues. You won't be seeing a +127 goal differential ever again.

[@alansmithee8831]

I started watching Barcelona women since the English players arrived. They are just different class. The bedrock of the team came through the club academy, not like the US college system. I imagine this will be something Washington are likely to copy. I keep commenting that it would be great if US investors put money into Spanish women's football to make the teams other than Barcelona competitive, in return for training young US players. It would bring them into professional football sooner. The recent equalizing goal for Everton's women against Arsenal was scored by a sixteen year old. The recent women's Euros U17 was between Spain and England, who are trying to copy their youth football. No surprise the same two were in the senior women's World Cup final.

[@sanfran216]

He just exudes enthusiasm for this sport. His trophies are well-earned. I hope he wins more!

[@cliterally1791]

omg the interview we needed

[@aletapequena]

I remember listening an interview of a Barca legend (Melanie Serrano) that said that to get motivation during "easy" draws in ligaF they would challenge themselves with things like: "lets get to minute 30 with more than 3 goals"... or "lets not lose possession for 5 minutes" or "lets string x passes together before scoring" or "lets get more than x shots on target"

[@warrenmacgregor8923]

Great interview!! Thanks Roger and Men In Blazers for this wonderful look into my Spirit’s new coach. Roger did such a good job asking questions that bring out a lot of fascinating aspects of this highly successful and highly humble man. I’m even more excited now to watch my team knowing who Jonatan is as a person. Welcome to Washington Jonatan and family! ❤

[@ButterflyThorn]

I love his interview style! I hope he has Emma Hayes on next

[@tsavonglah08]

Didn't hurt Barca in the group stage, but still remembering their loss against Bayern Munich.

[@rogermatthews2760]

One of the things that stands out to me in this interview are the similarities between Giráldez and Emma Hayes: high performance, competitive practices; all-around care about the players; and relaxed, humorous, fun loving and confident personalities.

[@joanmanuelroig1758]

The main fact that made Jona come to Washington is money. Without any doubt. This isn't a critisism it's the reality, if you works in a club but another club plays you 5 times more money you will change.

[@unknownnamerealpicture]

he answered that criticism by saying he had offers to join other clubs that offered 10 to 20 times more than he was being paid and it wasn’t the Washington spirit but what he said mainly made him come. Is that he wanted to suffer? I think that is a Spanish term. He wants to step outside of his comfort zone and become the best coach and developing American players on his new team will be quite a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it. also, Emma Hayes's selection of most of her team from two different NWSL teams tells you everything you need to know. Both of those coaches are from España. I’m looking forward to World Cup 27. He’s developing or helping to technically develop our future midfield with out mentioning Lily Johanne’s who plays for Ajax in Holland. I’m very excited to see what happens when American players become technically gifted meaning they become technically better that has been Europe’s biggest criticism of the US women. Having them physically superior mentally superior one could argue, and then giving them technical ability on top of that. 👀

[@nottoomuch87]

Deserved praise for Croix from Jonatan. She's a special talent. Her vision, final pass, finishing ability, and tactical awareness are absolutely world-class.

[@MrTechroundup]

MONEY, saved your time there.

[@kikiblu9982]

🎵🎶💲💲💲🎵🎶that mean green baby and there is nothing wrong wit it

[@For_Cruyff_Sake]

Can he nab a treble or quadruple in nwsl? There's no equivalent Conti cup or FA cup outside of regular league games right?

[@aletapequena]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I think he can win Shield, Championship, Challenger cup and whatever Champions equivalent they can come up with.... also the club WC starting 2026 every 4 years

[@Bikabika21]

Two main trophies to win in the NWSL. The first is winning the "league". Basically the same as Liga F or WSL. If at the end of the season, you are on top of the table, then you won the "Shield". Now, American sports are also based on winning the championship thru a round of playoffs. Basically, let say, the top 8 teams at the end of the season, then advance to the playoffs. Here, the number one play against the 8, the 2 against the 7, an so forth. Only one leg or as we americans say, single elimination game. At the end the two last team standings will play against each other. The winner has won the "Championship" . This year was the last year of the Challenge cup, which you can think of as a conti cup. But this year was the last. So, league wise, 2 trophies to be won: Shield and Championship. This year will also feature a new tournament between top teams of the NWSL, Liga Mex, and i believe two more leagues in the Americas. You can think of this one as " Champions league" but it isnt quite there yet as is the inaugural season. Then subsequently the club world cup. Hope this helps.

[@For_Cruyff_Sake]

@@Bikabika21 ok so the Shield, Championship and Summer Cup

[@unknownnamerealpicture]

he said he wanted to suffer. Are you from Spain? Can you tell me what that means some of my friends tell me it’s a phrase that the Spanish use. I’m very curious. Also, he never said which league was better. He did mention after Barcelona in Spain specifically, it drops off quite dramatically after that . In the quality and the competitiveness. That’s why he said he came here. Whether I believe that or not. I don’t know. I’m quite excited to see what he’s able to do with American women in the midfield quite young ones too helping develop them. If there’s one criticism I have of the US WNT from the Olympics is that we had no midfield. People in the comments seem to get mad, but I think it’s quite a compliment. Especially to the Spanish. Most of the US women realize they have to change the way they play. They can’t just be fast. They can’t just rely on mentality. They have to be technically gifted also. I’m hoping he helps with that considering his whole midfield is American and young and with the draft abolished and women now being able to stay at their clubs and not being traded without their permission is big at least for the NWSL. If you are Spanish. Spain needs to send their center back in their defenders to the NWSL. I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I think they would benefit and grow to be in the NWSL. Something like that game against Brazil would’ve never happened. Looking forward to 27. Uswnt #1 again somehow England is number two and they didn’t play in the Olympics. I don’t agree with that. At least Spain should’ve been there. Do you think winning the last World Cup would mean something? Also, there is a reason the Americans always said it’s hard to win the World Cup and then go and win Olympic gold. Whatever you may think of their national teams, the record speaks for itself, and with their best teams, they could never do it. Spain's defenders would benefit tremendously from a more intense league. That Brazil game was hard to watch. I was reading for Spain. I even had Spain beating the US. Before the Olympics started after watching some games I didn’t know if they had it to go all the way. Good luck and fix that defense for God's sake. 😅

[@ithan1977]

In the words, all sounds very well and nice, but in reality, things are different. As I said many times in the past Great players make great coaches. Does anyone think Jonathan would have those numbers if he was not coaching the best players of the world and future WC winners? And pls Jonathan don't talk to me about competitiveness in NWSL, I have eyes and see. We all know why you left Barca. Money, nothing else. And no game there can be compared to a Classico or a Champion League game. I want so much the best 4 or 5 teams in Europe to go there and play in a mini-tournament against the best 4 or 5 teams of the NWSL. We will see then what competitiveness is.

[@lprofileaccount]

Maybe that's why he decided to go to Spirit, he has to prove himself as a coach and you have reasons when you say that he joined the best in Barça but now they do have a great challenge with new players and another style of play. Not all teams benefit from Barça's way of playing.

[@ithan1977]

@lprofileaccount I agree with that approach, but Jonathan never said something like this. I know when you sign a new lucrative contract you must praise the League you are playing in, but the reality is different. I have watched these teams playing each other. And as said no game there is more competitive than the games being played in Europe in the League between top teams, and especially between teams in the Champions League. We are gonna have a competition at the end of August.

[@lprofileaccount]

​@@ithan1977If I'm very honest, I've never seen a NWSL match so I can't say much but yes, the best football is in Europe. Many say that the League is competitive because there are more possibilities that any team becomes champion. USA football will never be better than European football 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@ithan1977]

@lprofileaccount I accept that and I augment this argument. I hope he manages to make WSpirit play even at 70% of what Barcelona played. This would be a huge win for him and immense growth for the NWSL.

[@lovefoolish2019]

after watching vlatko with the uswnt, i can say that great players doesn’t automatically equal great coaches nor a great team. the coach needs to know how to direct the players and join them in a way that is productive. he has one loss in his three seasons with barcelona, the three seasons previous the team had 3 losses, so there is something there. it is definitely for money, but it’s also to prove himself further and to grow, like any other person would.

[@nottoomuch87]

I'm just happy Trinity Rodman will finally have elite coaches on both the national team and the spirit. I think the lack of great coaches has definitely hindered her development. I'm excited to see how she develops under Emma and Jonatan.

[@unknownnamerealpicture]

Exactly and one that will be detrimental to how she plays with possession. Just look at this guy’s last team. Barcelona feminine team. He had a hand in helping our coaching and developing one would argue some of the best players in football right now or soccer. I’m excited to see what he’s able to do with Rodman. I’m even more excited to see what he’s able to do with American midfielders. Helping develop the likes of Croix Bethune And her midfield mates. Through the Olympics that was our weakest and most glaring position. Our midfield was God-awful. Or one could say not even existent. I’m happy that he’ll have a hand in developing potentially without mentioning Lily Johannes that place for Ajax in Holland. He will have a hand in developing our national team's midfield. Currently, Spain has the best midfield. If he can help develop that even into 80% of what they are capable of then 👀 out.