Six months after cutting ties with Adelaide United, Josep Gombau announced as boss of David Villa’s DV7 soccer academy

FORMER Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau has been found – but he’s not where he said he was going.

Gombau found - and he’s not in New York

FORMER Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau has been found – but he’s not in New York.

Gombau has landed a junior academy soccer job on the small Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

Six months after cutting ties with Adelaide in a shock move, claiming he was on his way to New York because he wanted to live in a city closer to his home town of Barcelona, Gombau was announced as chief of Spanish superstar David Villa’s DV7 soccer academy in Bayamon.

The partnership is in conjunction with Puerto Rican club Bayamon FC.

Villa met Gombau face-to-face for the first time at the 2014 A-League launch, when the former Barcelona and Manchester City player was on loan at Melbourne City.

Gombau said he was satisfied with his new job.

“Certainly Puerto Rico has talents that are worthy of becoming football stars,’’ Gombau told the city’s official municipal website.

“For me it is not only an honour but a privilege to train and offer our vision to bring together sport in Puerto Rico and to arrive at an optimal level.”

Villa says Bayamon FC is his first academy before he plans on setting up projects worldwide under the DV7 banner.

Former Adelaide United Coach Josep Gombau (centre) with Spanish star David Villa in Puerto Rico

The club was founded in 1999 and plays in the US national premier soccer league competition which houses 80 clubs in the fourth division of the US soccer pyramid.

“I am very excited about this achievement,’’ Villa said.

“Through the new academy, we can achieve international profile athletes and to strengthen our relationship with Puerto Rico.

“I’m sure that we’ll train and develop new soccer stars through our philosophy.”

Gombau is Villa’s academy technical director in Puerto Rico which is nowhere near being a world soccer powerhouse. It has never qualified for a FIFA World Cup and sits 177th in the FIFA rankings.

The nation’s most notable export is pop singer Ricky Martin who rose to fame when he sang the 1998 FIFA World Cup tune The Cup of Life.

Gombau claimed during his final Reds press conference last July that New York was his new destination because his young family needed to be near Barcelona.

Bayamon is more than 10 hours closer to the Catalan capital than Adelaide, but it is still at least a 13-hour journey for the coach to fly home.

“The decision is because of family and finding a balance between my work and family life,” he said at the time.