Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu has heaped praise on Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal ahead of Saturday’s International Champions Cup match between the two sides in San Francisco.

Bartomeu feels Van Gaal – who coached Barcelona during two separates stints from 1997-2000 and 2002-2003 – is the perfect person to lead United back to domestic and European glory following the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.

“We know Manchester United is one of the biggest clubs in the world,” Bartomeu said. “It’s a club that has always been very successful and they will be successful in the future because they are doing a nice project.

“You know that we know their coach, Louis van Gaal, very well. 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.

“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, [Carles] Puyol and others into the first team. Van Gaal did something very good by having a lot of confidence in our young players – 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.”

United are reportedly in the process of securing the services of Barcelona forward Pedro, who is keen to join the English club since his playing time has taken a drastic hit following the arrival of Luis Suarez at the Camp Nou last season.

Bartomeu did not address the Pedro rumors, but the club president admitted that Barcelona – and La Liga as a whole – needs to show strength and resist the challenge posed by the financial strength of Premier League clubs – such as United.

He also feels that the new law which allows La Liga to sell all the television rights jointly will benefit the league in the long run because Spanish teams will now have a better chance of holding onto their players, instead of seeing them snatched up by clubs with a significant financial advantage.

“We are going to fight this,” Bartomeu said. “It’s true that the Premier League right now is the best in the world, not only in a sporting way but in terms of income.

“The new  television rights contract with the Premier League is something the rest of the leagues, including La Liga, have to follow.

“In Spain, we have a new law that obliges the clubs to sell all the TV rights jointly because we have to follow the Premier League.

“The Premier League is a reference point as an organization, we are following them and learning a lot of things from them, but we are going to fight against the Premier League. I talk about competition because we want to have the best players in our league.”