Galatasaray’s Domènec Torrent: ‘Going back to Barcelona is really special’

A man with 14 major honours won at Barcelona returns to the Camp Nou on Thursday night. It is not Pep Guardiola but his former assistant Domènec Torrent, who was at his friend’s side for more than a decade before trying to make a name in his own right.

Torrent took over as Galatasaray’s manager in January with the team 12th – their worst finish is 11th – after Fatih Terim was sacked amid a crisis engulfing the club. There have been green shoots of promise under the Catalan and the players are embracing his ideas but the challenge in their Europa League last-16 tie is mountainous against a Barcelona team revived under Xavi Hernández, who played an integral role in the club’s success during Torrent’s time there.

“Xavi is doing very well at Barcelona,” Torrent says. “He has totally recovered the style that made the team win so many things. Xavi being manager does not make it more special [to play Barcelona], even though I have a very good relationship with him; it is special because it is Barcelona, a team that I worked with for many years and supported since I was a little boy. It is not a secret, everyone knows we are Barça fans. Now we compete against them and now we are Galatasaray fans.”

It is a homecoming for the 59-year-old Torrent, who also worked with Guardiola at Bayern Munich and Manchester City, and his Catalan backroom staff. His playing career in Spain’s lower leagues, which ended at the age of 27, is a footnote to his coaching experiences, which led him to join Barcelona B as a video analyst in 2007 as Guardiola started his first job in management in Spain’s fourth tier. The season ended in league triumph and promotion to the top job at the Camp Nou.

“It is really special for us because we have worked a long