Sergio Busquets Begins Coaching Career at Barcelona

Sergio Busquets is back at Barcelona. This time, with a clipboard instead of the captain’s armband.

The 38-year-old club legend has returned to begin his coaching career with Barça Athletic, joining Juliano Belletti’s staff as an assistant with the reserve side in Spain’s fourth tier. He will work on the touchline while completing his coaching badges, taking his first steps into management at the club that shaped his career.

From the dressing room to the dugout

Barça Athletic were playing in the second division as recently as 2018. Now they sit in the Segunda Federación, two rungs lower, and the mission is blunt: get back up. Belletti and Busquets have been handed a dual brief — push the team towards promotion to the third tier and, just as importantly, polish the next wave of talent for the first team.

For Busquets, the setting is familiar. He joined Barcelona as a teenager in 2005 and cut his teeth with the reserves, making 25 appearances before Pep Guardiola pulled him into the senior squad. From there, he became the anchor of one of the greatest club sides in history.

He finished his Barça playing career with 722 appearances, a figure surpassed only by Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández. His medal haul reads like a club museum inventory: nine LaLiga titles, three Champions League crowns, and a stack of domestic and international trophies that defined an era.

A world champion returns home

Busquets’ influence stretched well beyond Catalonia. With Spain, he earned 143 caps and sat at the heart of the La Roja team that dominated world football, lifting the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2012.

When he finally left Barcelona, he chose a very different stage. In 2023 he joined Inter Miami, reuniting with former Camp Nou teammates and close friends Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and Luis Suárez. Even in the twilight of his career, he remained central: 116 appearances for the Florida club, guiding Miami to the Leagues Cup in 2023 and the MLS Cup in 2025 before hanging up his boots.

Now he steps into a new phase, back where it all began, trying to shape futures rather than dictate midfields. The task is clear and unforgiving: restore Barça Athletic’s status and feed the first team with players ready for the highest level.

Busquets mastered Barcelona’s style as a player. The question now is simple: can he teach it?