Top facts about Julen Lopetegui, Sevilla manager

Julen Lopetegui is a well known Spanish former player who was a goalkeeper during his playing career. Besides, he has managed a total of ten teams till 2021 and he is currently the manager of Sevilla FC.

He has represented the national team of Spain both as a player and manager. Back to his playing times, he appeared in more than 149 games in the league La Liga during 11 seasons and has participated in competitions of Real Madrid, Logroñés,

and Rayo Vallecano.

He added 168 matches in Segunda División, with three clubs, and represented Spain at the 1994 World Cup. He began working as a manager in 2003, and for several years was in charge of Spain's youth teams, leading the under-19 and under-21 sides to European titles.

He was also head coach of the senior team for two years until he was dismissed before the start of the 2018 World Cup after his agreement to join Real Madrid following the tournament was announced.

During his coaching period, he has managed Rayo Vallecano, Castilla,

, Real Madrid and Sevilla, as he won the 2020 Europa League with the latter side.

We have gathered some of such fascinating top facts about Julen Lopetegui, taking his professional career and life story into account. So if you are interested to know more about him, make sure to stick around until the end.

Top facts about Julen Lopetegui that you might want to know

Here you would go through an engaging ride through some of the most impressive top facts about Julen Lopetegui, so without further ado, let's buckle up for the long ride ahead.

Julen Lopetegui facts in brief

Bio

• Full name

  : Julen Lopetegui Argote

• Nickname

  : Lopetegui

General information

• Place of Birth

  : Asteasu, Gipuzkoa

• Date of Birth

  : 1966-08-28

• Age

  : 54 years

• Nationality

  : Spanish

• Ethnicity

  : White

• Religion

  : Christianity

Football information

• Profession

  : Football Coach

• Position

  : Goalkeeper

• Current Club

  : Sevilla (Coach)

Personal information

• Father

  : Jose Antonio Lopetegui

• Marital Status

  : Married

• Wife

  : Rosa Maqueda

• Children

  : Jon Lopetegui (Son)

• Net Worth

  : $5.5 million

Physical status

• Height

  : 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)

• Weight

  : 87 kg

• Body Type

  : Athletic

• Eye Color

  : Brown

• Hair Color

  : Dark Brown

Julen Lopetegui childhood

Julen Lopetegui Argote was born into the family of the weightlifting champion Jose Antonio Lopetegui.

Julen Lopetegui childhood

was spent with his siblings helping their parents in their family restaurant; therefore, he could just play soccer in his spare time.

Considering

top facts about Julen Lopetegui

family, one can suggest that he is a descendant of a well-known family of “harrijasotzailes” (stone lifters), known as the “Agerre”.

His father, José Antonio Lopetegui (Agerre II), was a talented weightlifter to such an extent that when Julen was a 2-year-old child, he declined an offer from Vicente Gil, president of the Spanish Boxing Federation, of the European Boxing Union, although he did not accept that, he made an indelible impression on his son Julen in making him so much passionate about boxing.

In

Julen Lopetegui life story

during his youth period and even today, more often when Lopetegui had no opportunity to play soccer, he has helped his brother since Julen's brother continues to run the family business in the administration of two restaurants in Madrid.

Unlike Zinedine Zidane, Julen had not gained that much popularity during his playing career. He started his career in

and then was transferred to Real Madrid Castilla where Vicente del Bosque was the coach.

As a young goalkeeper, he played three years there and stayed in reserve more than he actually played. There was only one match against Atletico when Lopetegui was the primary team member.

Julen Lopetegui professional career

Lopetegui started his professional career at local Real Sociedad, where he was unable to gain that much progress due to the presence of Luis Arconada.

Therefore in 1985 when he was 19 years old, he accepted an offer from Real Madrid and played in their B team. Then he was loaned to Las Palmas for the 1988-89 season.

Upon returning from loan, he appeared just once for Real Madrid's first team during two seasons in a 3–3 away draw against

as Real were already crowned league champions.

Besides, he was part of the Real Madrid team that won the 1989-90 La Liga. After that, he moved to CD Logrones in 1991, where he played as a first-choice goalkeeper as he was instrumental when the modest Riojan club unfailingly succeeded to retain its top-flight status.

Then Barcelona signed him in 1994 as

had left Barcelona for Valencia CF. However, he was not their first choice goalkeeper as he lost the battle of the first-choice status to longtime understudy Carles Busquets.

The goalkeeper remembered that period as the worst moment in his career because he went through many injuries, and it was that much arduous for him to endure the herculean physical activities that he could just dream of appearing on the field. 

He also appeared just five times in his span with Barcelona and was part of the Barcelona team that won the Supercopa de Espana in 1994 and 1996 as well.

And when the Catalans bought FC Porto's Vítor Baía, he was further demoted to third-string, and therefore came back to Madrid along with Rayo Vallecano.

As Segunda-División club

was his next career turn he became their first-choice goalkeeper for the first two seasons. In the 1999-2000 season, Lopetegui led the club go to the Primera División and the UEFA Europa League as they also reached the Copa del Rey quarterfinal.

Totally, Lopetegui was a starter in two of his five seasons and still managed to appear in 36 league matches from 1999 to 2002 with Rayo always in the top division.

At the end of the 2001-2002 season, he made his mind to teach others to protect the gate and at the age of 36, he was retired from his playing football profession in 2002.

At the international level, due to his stellar performances at Logroñés, he has earned only one cap with Spain when he appeared as a substitute for Zubizarreta for the final 30 minutes of a 0–2 friendly loss to Croatia in Valencia, on 23 March 1994. Subsequently, he was named in the final squad of that year's 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Julen Lopetegui managerial career

Julen Lopetegui accepted Juan Santisteban’s offer and began assisting him in the U-17 team training at the 2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship.

Later, he experienced his first head coaching spell at his former Rayo Vallecano, with the club in the second level, yet he was fired after the tenth match of the 2003–04 campaign because neither he nor his successors Gustavo Benítez and Txetxu Rojo were not able to save the team from leaving the Segunda División.

At the FIFA World Cup 2006, he became the analyst and TV commentator for laSexta. Viewers still remember how he fainted live on TV. A bank used that scene in its ad, and besides Julen constructed a sports boarding school for 85 children in Bolivia with his payment.

Then he came back to his coaching career, with Real Madrid Castilla, who he played for in the 1980s, now in the third tier. As he became the scout of Real Madrid and at the same time studied, he managed to create his own coach strategy.

In 2008,

offered him the position of their coach, but he did not achieve that much success there. In the next year, when Ramón Calderón left the presidential post of the team, Julen left the Galácticos as well.

From 2010 to 2014, Lopetegui coached the Spanish youth teams, winning the 2012 European Under-19 Championship and the 2013 Under-21 Championship. It is notable to mention that in 2018, five members of the latter went to the FIFA World Cup in Russia together with Julen.

The future Barcelona players

and Paco Alcácer, the player of Bavaria Juan Bernat, and Gerard Deulofeu who currently plays for Watford were the victorious team members. He left the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 30 April 2014, after that his contract was expired.

Besides, in 2014, he began to train the Portuguese Potro and again, he counted on young players a lot. Therefore the youngest in the history of the club team reached the 2014-2015 Champions League quarterfinal. After a while, he was sacked due to his further failures there.

Just for instance, in his first season at the Estádio do Dragão, with the club's biggest budget ever, Lopetegui led them to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, yet they equalled the club's biggest defeat in European competitions as they lost 6–1 against FC

(having lost by the same score to AEK Athens FC in 1978). He did not succeed to win any silverware, contributing to the longest drought during Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa's presidency.

On 8 January 2016, with a 1–3 home loss to C.S. Marítimo in the Taça da Liga, after Porto's elimination from the Champions League and as they were ranked third in the domestic league after an away loss and a home draw, Lopetegui was eventually relieved from his duties there and was replaced by Rui Barros. Just after a week, the unilateral termination of his former contract with the club was announced.

On 21 July 2016, although he was strongly linked to English side

which was under new ownership, when the Spanish national team did not qualify in the 1/8 European Championship, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol replaced Vicente del Bosque with Julen Lopetegui.

His task was to qualify in the FIFA World Cup and he succeeded to achieve this goal brilliantly. Yet, Spanish fans were that much perplexed to know that who was going to present the country in Russia as

, Héctor Bellerín, Cesc Fàbregas, and Marcos Alonso were not included.

Six months before the championship, it was evident that Fernando Torres would not participate in the World Cup as well. More specifically in his first match in charge, on 1 September, he managed to lead them to a 2–0 friendly victory over Belgium at the King Baudouin Stadium and the nation was qualified for the 2018 World Cup, as they won nine and drawn one of their group matches.

On 12 June 2018, while the team was already in Russia for the tournament, it was revealed that Lopetegui would take over as the head coach of Real Madrid on a three-year deal after it was concluded that Spain would involve in the World Cup.

And therefore on the following day, his dismissal from his job with the national team was announced as he was replaced by Fernando Hierro.

In his span with

, his first competitive game in charge occurred on 15 August 2018, in a 4–2 loss to rivals Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup after extra time.

Therefore he became the second Real manager to began his tenure by conceding four goals, after Englishman Michael Keeping who began in 1948 being downed 4–1 by RC Celta de Vigo.

Following numerous bad results and, along with a 5–1 away defeat to Barcelona in El Clásico on 28 October 2018, he was fired the next day, as he was replaced by Santiago Solari.

Finally, on 5 June 2019, he was assigned as the new

FC manager on a three-year deal. In his first year, they ended up fourth in the qualification for the Champions League.

On 21 August they defeated Inter Milan 3–2 in the 2020 UEFA Europa League Final, which was considered to be his first club honour. And he is still in charge of the club as he agreed to a further two-year extension on 10 January 2021.

Julen Lopetegui personal life and body measurement

If we take top facts about Julen Lopetegui in to account the indication of his personal life affairs would be worth mentioning.

He is a kind of person who is very conscious of his personal life as he likes to keep his private life to himself. So you could find just very few details about

Julen Lopetegui personal life

.

Julen Lopetegui has married Rosa Maqueda who is the sister of former midfielder Juan Jose Maqueda of the club “Real Madrid” in 1989.

They were in a relationship even before their marriage and it was stated that they are blessed with three children together and one of them is a son called Jon Lopetegui.

If we provide further insight into top facts about Julen Lopetegui, we can suggest that he stands at a

height of 1.85 m or 6 feet and 1 inch tall.

Regarding

Julen Lopetegui body measurement

he has an attractive athletic body build as his eye colour is brown and his hair colour is dark brown. His sexual orientation is straight as well.

Julen Lopetegui net worth

With taking

top facts about Julen Lopetegui

into consideration, it is self-evident that his net worth might not be exactly clear in as much as he tends to have a private life and he has not revealed any data about his salary on the internet or to the media to date.

In accordance with his achievements as he is a successful soccer coach, he apparently has a net worth of $1.5 Million - $5.5 Million in 2021.

Julen Lopetegui networth

in 2020 was also around $1 Million - $5.

Julen Lopetegui has worked arduously and strived a lot so as to reach such amount of net worth as he had been part of the football fraternity for more than thirty years, therefore he earned the money from being a professional Association Football Player.

Julen Lopetegui social media

Considering our

top facts about Julen Lopetegui

, you might find it interesting to know that he has not any activity on social media platforms. He came from the time when the social media platforms were still in the developing phase.

In his life story, after he spent an excessive amount of time on the football ground, social media did not seem to be able to change his focus from the game. Although some sources have provided

Julen Lopetegui social media

accounts, they were not found at least for the current time.

Yet if you search his name on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, you might probably find some unverified accounts, fan-made pages, and a disproportionate number of hash-tags. But it seems like he takes huge delight in enjoying his personal life away from the hassle of using social media. 

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