In 1999, an Ecuadorian banking tycoon called Rodrigo Paz wanted to take the team he owned, Liga de Quito, to the next level and make it a major force in Latin American football. As well as spending heavily on players, he hired Manuel Pellegrini, a Chilean coach who had been successful in his home country and was starting to make a name for himself across South America. With the full backing and confidence of the club owner, the quietly spoken coach’s methods were effective and he won that year’s national championship in style, as well as taking the previously underperforming team on an impressive run in the Copa Libertadores continental tournament. Fast forward to 2010 and Pellegrini … [Read more...] about Pellegrini embraces Málaga’s long-term dream
spanish football
The rise, fall and resurrection of Sevilla FC
On March 16, CSKA Moscow scored one of last season’s biggest Champions League upsets by knocking a half-hearted Sevilla side out of the competition at the last-16 stage with a 2-1 win at the Andalusians’ Sánchez Pizjuán stadium. “It’s a bad result and I ask our supporters to forgive us for that,” said coach Manolo Jiménez afterwards. It was the first time in several years that a Sevilla coach had needed to apologise to fans, after a run that saw the club leave its cross-city rival, Betis, standing and establish itself as a European force. Sevilla announced its arrival at that peak by winning the UEFA Cup in 2006, its first major European title and the fruit of several years’ work by … [Read more...] about The rise, fall and resurrection of Sevilla FC
Hércules’ Italian job on Barça restores Liga intrigue
While staff at the Spanish Economy Ministry have been telling anyone who will listen for the last few months that “Spain isn’t Greece”, over at the football federation, they’ve had a rather more tricky time of it trying to convince us that “Spain isn’t Scotland”. Scotland in this context means a country with only two teams that ever look remotely like winning the domestic league. And over the last few years, while Real Madrid and Barcelona may not resemble Celtic and Glasgow Rangers in any way on the pitch, each pair of teams seems to enjoy a similarly vice-like duopoly on the silverware. So it was refreshing to see league champion and European powerhouse Barcelona humbled 2-0 by newly … [Read more...] about Hércules’ Italian job on Barça restores Liga intrigue
It’s Real Mourinho vs. Spain FC as La Liga begins
Nobody can accuse Spain’s top teams of lacking stars. Real Madrid has Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Iker Casillas and now Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira. Barcelona, meanwhile, has eight players from Spain’s World Cup-winning squad, including Xavi Hernández, David Villa and Pedro Rodríguez. And yet, as the Spanish league season gets underway, the eye is drawn not to midfielder Andrés Iniesta, a football genius in an accountant’s body, or the stepovers and hair gel of Ronaldo, but rather the two sharply dressed men overseeing these players at the side of the pitch. This season, perhaps more than any other, is a battle between two managerial auteurs: Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola and Madrid’s José … [Read more...] about It’s Real Mourinho vs. Spain FC as La Liga begins
Spain equipped for football immortality
It's pretty good to be a Spanish football fan at the moment. The reigning European champions set off for South Africa following a 6-0 victory against Poland in Murcia's Nueva Condomina stadium that emphatically rubber-stamped the 'tournament favourite' tag already hanging around Spain's neck. Poland are by no means a decent team, racking up just 11 points in a qualifying group that included San Marino and Northern Ireland, and if it were not for for Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak Spain might have eased to double figures. But it is not so much the scoreline as the source of the goals that will have made Spain's opponents – if any had failed to notice over the last two years – … [Read more...] about Spain equipped for football immortality
Mourinho: Madrid’s saviour, Barça’s anti-Christ?
Someone once said that in England football is war, in Italy it is chess, and in Spain it is theatre. José Mourinho has proved that he can battle it out in England by winning the league title twice with Chelsea. He has also just shown he can manoeuvre with the best of them in Italy by winning the Scudetto, the Coppa and the Champions League in the same season. So now he comes to Spain, set on continuing an extraordinary campaign of European conquest that began in earnest when he announced himself to the world by leading Porto to the Champions League title in 2004. But if, as anticipated, he becomes Real Madrid’s new coach, can he provide the kind of success and theatre the club … [Read more...] about Mourinho: Madrid’s saviour, Barça’s anti-Christ?
Seeking the perfect leader for a two-horse race
The Spanish league season that has just ended may have been a thriller, with Barcelona only securing the title on the last day of the season, but in a couple of ways it has been an entirely predictable affair. Once again, only two teams were ever serious contenders; and once again, Real Madrid seems intent on replacing its coach. Manuel Pellegrini, the former Villarreal manager drafted in to mould a team from an expensive but disparate collection of summer signings at Real Madrid, is a man whose days are numbered; so much so that the Chilean can count them on one hand. There is little in the way of reassurance emanating from the Bernabéu boardroom that Pellegrini will be invited to see … [Read more...] about Seeking the perfect leader for a two-horse race
What now for Real Madrid’s €250-million flops?
Legend has it that on one of the several occasions that Real Madrid was wooing Arsène Wenger in the hope of persuading him to become the team’s new coach, he visited the Bernabéu to meet with senior club officials. After the meeting, as the unimpressed Arsenal boss drove away from the stadium, he said to his translator: “Real Madrid thinks it’s a big club, but it behaves like a small one.” When Real crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage after drawing 1-1 against Lyon at the Bernabéu, the gap between the club’s lofty ambitions and reality was plain for all to see. This year, of all years, was when the nine-time European champions were supposed to return to the top of the … [Read more...] about What now for Real Madrid’s €250-million flops?