New Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino has revealed the influence of the Paraguayan president in landing the job.

Martino explained that the president of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes, first introduced him to Barca club president Sandro Rosell several years ago, when the Catalan was a marketing executive for Nike and Cartes ran Paraguay side Libertad.

He said: "It all came about via Horacio Cartes. I met the president of Barcelona [Rosell] at a dinner at Cartes' house. Then, when the Barcelona job became vacant, Rosell didn't know how to contact me so he called Cartes, and that's how it all began.

"Until I'd spoken to Rosell, I had no idea what was going on. He told me he wanted to put me in contact with Andoni Zubizarreta [Barcelona's sporting director] and a few days later we started to talk. I didn't even mention it to my wife."