New Barcelona coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino has revealed the part Paraguay’s president had in helping him get the top job with the Catalan giants.

A relative unknown until barely a week ago, the Argentinian’s biggest role before getting the call from Barca was coaching the Paraguay national team, who he took to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup.

Martino said 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.

“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 (Barce-lona’s sporting director) and a few days later we started to talk. I didn’t even mention it to my wife.”

The Argentinian also said he never thought he would be considered for the Barca job.

“It’s all very exciting, but I’m enjoying it,” said Martino.

“This is an amazing job which brings up many sensations, but one that also carries a great responsibility. This exceeds anything I’ve done before.

“Going straight from Argentina to Barcelona is crazy, it would have been more normal to start a career here in Spain first.”