Joan Laporta confirms Barcelona talks with Xavi

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed that the club are in contact with Xavi but stopped short of commenting on whether the Spaniard would return to Camp Nou as head coach.

Xavi has emerged as the favourite to replace Ronald Koeman, who was relieved of his duties on Wednesday night following the 1-0 defeat to Rayo Vallecano in La Liga.

The 41-year-old has a contract with Al-Sadd until after next year's World Cup, though, so Barcelona will need to negotiate his release from the Qatari outfit.

Laporta is confident that Xavi will manage Barcelona at some point in the future, but the Catalan outfit's president insisted that the legendary midfielder was not their only option for the role at this moment in time.

"I have always said one day [Xavi] will be Barca's head coach but I don't know when," Laporta told reporters.

"We have great references about Xavi at Al Sadd. All our reports about Xavi are positive. We can talk a lot about Xavi, but I cannot give you more details. He is in all the papers, but we also have other options."

Barcelona, who have lost their last two league games against Real Madrid and Rayo, will be managed by interim head coach Sergi Barjuan against Alaves on Saturday night.