Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu believes Louis van Gaal will succeed as Manchester United manager. The Dutchman had two spells as Barcelona manager, and brought through players such as Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Carles Puyol during this time, with all three players becoming legends of the game.

Speaking at the launch of FC Barcelona’s partnership with globalcitizen.org, Bartomeu had a few words to say on the former Barcelona boss amid the Catalan clubs meeting with Manchester United tonight:

“Yes, it’s a good move. We know him from when he was at Barcelona and you have to remember that one of our best players of the past 15 years, Xavi, was brought through by Van Gaal. He put Xavi, Puyol and others into the first team. Van Gaal did something very good by having a lot of confidence in our young players. The youth players of our academy, La Masia, he used them a lot and he was right because for the last 12 or 15 years those players have been the best players in our team.”

“We know how strong, intelligent and clever he is, how he gets the best that is possible from his players, and United are going to be one of the top clubs this year, I’m sure.”

[Quotes via the Guardian]

Manchester United will face Barcelona in front of around 60,000 fans – and millions more worldwide. Two of the biggest teams in the world clashing was always going to attract big attention, even if it is just a friendly.