Deco’s journey to Barcelona Sporting Director role started in Gabon | OneFootball

Barcelona Sporting Director Deco has just gotten his feet wet in the realm of club transfers, having previously worked as a scout, agent and consultant. Yet some believe he may have had an invisible helping hand into one of the top jobs in football.

Deco was initially employed by Jorge Mendes’ Gestifute agency, before setting his own D3 Sports Agency. He had also held a scouting role for Barcelona in South America beforehand.

However Josep Maria Minguella, long-time agent himself and formerly closely linked with the Barcelona board, has claimed that Deco’s addition is due to his relationships rather than his technical ability.

Gabonese leader, Ali Bongo (regularly accused of voter fraud), has recently been deposed by a military coup, following 14 years in charge of the country. Deco previously worked as a consultant for Bongo, and Minguella claims that his relationship with the current Barcelona board can be dated back to that time, beyond his obvious links to President Joan Laporta as a player. He made the comments on Onze, as carried by MD.

“Alejandro Echevarria is the one in charge. The man who had to leave the board because of the Francisco Franco Foundation, is a partner of Deco, historically. And they were doing business in Gabon. And the first player that this organization brought to Barca was Aubameyang, who is from Gabon. What a coincidence. And nobody notices. And Deco was the technical secretary of the Gabon Federation. And [Jose Antonio] Camacho was the Gabon coach and his assistant was a son of Laporta (Guim Laporta).”

Echevarria was previously on the Barcelona board in Laporta’s first spell, but was forced to resign from his position due to links to former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Yet Laporta, who is Echevarria’s ex-brother in law, enjoys a close relationship with the Barcelona President still. During summer meetings for transfers, Echevarria has been present alongside the likes of Laporta, Xavi Hernandez, Deco and Mateu Alemany.

The two supposedly met at an event for the Samuel Eto’o Foundation in Gabon, where Lionel Messi attended alongside Deco and Echevarria.

Still not in possession of an official role at Barcelona, Echevarria’s opinion at least appears to carry weight with Laporta, as a number of reports have stated. Deco’s appointment was something of a surprise, as was the exit of Director of Football Mateu Alemany, who many believed had done a solid job over the past two and a half years.