Sergio Busquets Joins Barça Athletic Coaching Staff

Sergio Busquets is back at Barcelona. Not on the pitch this time, but on the touchline, beginning a new life in football where it all started.

The 38-year-old former midfield anchor has joined Barça Athletic’s coaching staff, linking up with manager Juliano Belletti for the coming season while he works through his coaching badges. The club’s reserve side, once a regular in Spain’s second tier, now finds itself in the Segunda Federación, the fourth level of Spanish football.

That drop stings. As recently as 2018, Barça’s second team were competing in the Segunda División. Two relegations later, Belletti and Busquets inherit a group that must fight its way back to the third tier while still serving its primary purpose: producing players good enough for the first team.

It is a role Busquets knows better than almost anyone.

He arrived at Barcelona as a teenager in 2005, a lanky prospect who would first make his name with the reserves. He played 25 times for the B team before Pep Guardiola, who had coached him there, pulled him into the senior squad. From that moment, he never really stepped back.

Over the next 15 years, Busquets became the quiet heartbeat of one of the greatest club sides in history. He racked up 722 appearances in Barça colours, a figure surpassed only by Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández. The medal haul is just as imposing: nine LaLiga titles, three Champions Leagues and a long list of domestic and international trophies that defined an era at Camp Nou.

His influence stretched far beyond club football. With Spain, Busquets earned 143 caps and anchored the midfield for La Roja’s golden generation, winning the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. He was the constant in a side built on control, intelligence and ruthless efficiency.

When his Barcelona chapter closed, Busquets crossed the Atlantic in 2023 to join Inter Miami, reuniting with Messi, Jordi Alba and Luis Suárez in Florida. Even in the twilight of his career, he remained central. He made 116 appearances for Miami and helped the club lift the Leagues Cup in 2023 and the MLS Cup in 2025 before finally calling time on a glittering playing career.

Now comes the hard part: translating that vision of the game into coaching.

At Barça Athletic, Busquets steps into a demanding environment. The remit is clear but unforgiving – win enough to climb out of the fourth tier while shaping teenagers into players who can one day handle the weight of the first-team shirt. Every training session is a balancing act between results and development, between short-term pressure and long-term planning.

For a man who built his reputation on reading the game a second quicker than everyone else, it is a challenge that seems almost made for him. The next generation at Barcelona will learn from someone who has seen every angle of the club, from the dusty pitches of youth football to Champions League finals.

The Busquets era at Camp Nou never really felt finished. It just changed touchlines.