He never played under Xavi and now he leaves: "The decision was his"
Xavi Hernandez will lose one of his midfield assets after failing to deliver on a promise of minutes
In the end, Miralem Pjanic will no longer play for FC Barcelona. The Bosnian midfielder is about to seal a move to Sharjah FC of the United Arab Emirates, with a three-year contract. Pjanic had been excited about having minutes in the FC Barcelona first team after Xavi's words in the preseason, however, since the season began, he's never played.
"He is a player who could help us, but he has decided to go out and look for more minutes or more opportunities. Each one decides his future as he wants, he has been a great professional until today. He is a player that I like, but he has the decision in his hands to be able to leave, he has a proposal to play more and I perfectly understand that he wants to leave to be happier having minutes", explained Xavi in a press conference prior to the Champions League match against Viktoria Pilzen.
Xavi asked Pjanic not to leave FC Barcelona during the pre-season, as he would reportedly have in consideration for big minutes: "He surprised us and he will stay with us, he will have minutes and worked well". However, since then, Pjanic did not play the promised minutes.
For the Bosnian, his transfer to FC Barcelona was an absolute failure. A top player at Juventus, he was part of a swap with Arthur Melo that saw over 100 million euros swap hands. When Pjanic arrived, then Barça manager Ronald Koeman explained that he had not asked for him and in the last season he was on loan at Besiktas.
If he had not accepted that offer, today Miralem Pjanic would likely remain a Juve star and one of the most experienced players on Massimiliano Allegri's squad. The story ends with the Bosnian going to play to Arabian football, virtually putting an end to his career in Europe.