The trophy is confirmation of Rijkaard?s coaching credentials

Madrid: Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard will look back on this season with a mixture of satisfaction and relief once the immediate euphoria of winning the Spanish League title on Saturday has subsided.

Satisfaction, because the Catalan club has ended a six-year barren streak that stretched back to when they were last Spanish champions in 1999.

?Winning your domestic championship is a product of all your hard work over the length of a season. It proves that everything and everyone has been working consistently well,? said the dread-locked Dutchman.

Into the bargain, Rijkaard ensured that Barcelona kept a resurgent Real Madrid at bay despite their eternal rivals? big improvement over the second half of the season after the arrival of their new coach Wanderley Luxemburgo in December.

However, there will also be considerable relief in the Rijkaard household because winning the championship finally confirms the former Milan and Ajax player?s coaching credentials.

Many pundits had spoken of the 42 year-old former Dutch international?s qualities as a tactician and strategist but, until Saturday, he had no silverware to show for the kind words.

Two years at the helm of the Dutch national side saw him take the men of orange to the semi-finals of Euro 2000, despite repeated dressing room turmoil, but they were ousted from the tournament on home turf after a penalty shoot-out against Italy.

Rijkaard resigned immediately after the defeat.

?My ambition was to win this championship. We have not done so, so I have no other choice than to go,? said a glum Rijkaard, in the wake of his departure.

He then went into club management for a season with struggling Sparta Rotterdam but had been out of the game for a year before new Barcelona president Joan Laporta came calling in the summer of 2003.

Laporta must have had his doubts he had made the right decision as Barcelona slumped to 12th after the first 18 games of last season.

However, rather than firing Rijkaard, Laporta gambled and backed his man to the hilt, a risk that paid off. (AFP)