08/21/2020 - 18:27
- Clarín.com
- sports
The celebration of Julen Lopetegui, with tears that were impossible to contain, have an explanation. Gone are two years of frustrations. Hence all the emotion that the DT left to run at the Rhein Energie Stadion in Cologne while his players, with the Argentines Ever Banega, Lucas Ocampos and Mudo Vázquez at the head, celebrated the conquest of the always appreciable Europa League.
It is that the coach was able to show all his potential as a driver after a series of bad decisions that made him the bad guy for a long time. Lopetegui went from being the coach who would make Spain the new world champion to being considered an unscrupulous person, hated by (almost) an entire country.
What happened? In 2018, when there was only one day left for the start of the World Cup in Russia, Real Madrid confirmed him as the new coach of the team and the World Cup debut never came for him: the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) fired him for having reached an agreement behind the backs of the leaders.
In the White House, he did not do well either: he lasted just ten games before being fired for poor results. He had to go to winter barracks to meet again. And after a pause, in June 2019, it was presented in Seville. He signed a three-year contract and now, in his first season, he celebrated an international title. The revenge came this Friday: the Andalusian team beat Inter 3-2 in a super changeable final and was crowned the post-pandemic king of the Europa League.
The cry of Lopetegui after the final won in Cologne. Photo: AFP
His story
Lopetegui began his coaching career 17 years ago at Rayo Vallecano. And shortly after he had his opportunity at Real Madrid Castilla, the Merengue club's subsidiary team , where he directed in the 2008-2009 season and before that he was scouting director. With that experience, Spain sought him out to be in charge of the youth teams and the native of Asteasu responded with the titles of the European Under 19 Championship in 2012 and the Under 21 team that was crowned in 2013.
He returned to club life with Porto de Portugal , where he worked from July 2014 to January 2016, when he was fired. After two years adrift and when few trusted him, because he did not seem to have sufficient credentials to catch one of the best selected in the world, the RFEF hired him. Something gave him credit: his experience in the youth of Spain, where he met the young people with whom he faced the re-founding of La Roja .
From that four-year youth cycle, Julen Lopetegui had trained nine young people who would be the basis of that squad for the 2018 World Cup: David de Gea, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Nacho, Daniel Carvajal, Koke, Thiago Alcántara, Isco, Rodrigo and Saúl Ñíguez . In addition, two other players were born under his wing: he discovered Iago Aspas, whom he made his debut in November 2016 (he has played 8 games), and Álvaro Odriozola, who appeared in 2017 at the age of 21.
Lopetegui was already in Russia when he was fired from the Spain team. Photo EFE
The names for Russia spoke for themselves: of the list of 23, only six players had made it to the national team led by Vicente del Bosque (Cesar Azpilicueta, Nacho Monreal, Jordi Alba, Diego Costa, Marco Asensio and Lucas Vázquez ) and six others survived from that title in South Africa 2010 (Reina, Piqué, Ramos, Busquets, Iniesta and David Silva).
Thus, with many players known to him, Lopetegui formed a team that seemed invincible. Since his debut with a win against Belgium as a visitor, he had chained 20 games without losing; among them, 14 wins. Their qualification for the World Cup had also been impeccable: nine wins, one draw, 36 goals for and just three against, figures that with friendlies amounted to 61 many converted (six of them to Argentina in March 2018) and thirteen received.
However, the messy decision to arrange his arrival at Real Madrid three weeks after signing his continuity with Spain until 2020 left him without his World Cup debut. On June 13, the day before the opening game in which Russia beat Saudi Arabia 5-0, Luis Rubiales, president of the RFEF, announced the immediate dismissal of the coach.
"We have been forced to do without the national coach. We wish him the best of luck. The negotiation with Real Madrid has occurred without any information to the RFEF. We found out just five minutes before the press release. There is a way of act that must be fulfilled, "explained the leader.
The situation had an obvious cost for Spain, which barely beat Iran in the World Cup and was surprisingly eliminated in the second round against Russia. All while the beaten Lopetegui tried to straighten his course in a three-time world champion Madrid that suddenly had run out of its top star, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Lopetegui only lasted 10 games at Real Madrid. AP Photo
As marked by that traumatic beginning, the DT never finished making his footing in the White House . With little offensive power (he reached 481 minutes without converting, a negative record in the club's history), poor results and a performance very distant from what is expected from a team of stars, Lopetegui was sinking more and more in the swamp. At the Camp Nou (against the same team in which he had a forgettable step when he was a professional goalkeeper) he received a blow from which he did not recover: Barcelona's 5-1 was too much for him.
What started badly ended up worse and just ten games after the debut, Lopetegui was fired by Florentino Pérez and replaced by Santiago Solari, who was also unable to settle in office until Zinedine Zidane returned.
In June 2019, Lopetegui returned to a La Liga club to take revenge: and in his first season at Sevilla, marked by the coronavirus, he had the chance to redeem himself. He has already won a ticket to the next edition of the Champions League by finishing fourth in the domestic tournament.
And this Friday he took over the Europa League title , that tournament that suits the Andalusian club so well - he played six finals and won all six, leaving Lautaro Martínez's Inter on their knees in Cologne.
A sweet revenge for the most hated who is once again the most loved. At least in Seville.
FK