Ernesto Valverde Biography

Ernesto Valverde, born 9 February 1964 in Viandar de la Vera, is a Spanish football coach and retired footballer who played as a winger. Following a stint at Barcelona, he is currently without a club.

He began his football career at Alaves. After playing for Sestao between 1985 and 1986, he moved to Espanyol, where he played 72 league matches over two seasons. Barcelona decided to hire him in 1988, where he failed to establish himself as a key player and played just 22 league matches in two seasons.

However, it was with the Catalan club that he managed to win the only trophies of his career, namely the 1990 Copa del Rey and the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup. After transferring to Athletic Bilbao in 1990, he was able to become one of the top players of the club and played 170 league matches over six years.

At the end of the 1995-96 season, Valverde decided to join

. After playing 18 league matches and scoring 2 goals for the club, Valverde decided to end his career as a player at this club in 1997 and to start a coaching career. He has played only one match for the Spanish national team.

His coaching career began at Athletic Bilbao, followed by spells at Espanyol and Olympiacos in

. He coached Villarreal CF in the 2009-10 season, replacing

who departed for Real Madrid.

All You Need to Know About Ernesto Valverde Biography

Valverde rejoined Olympiacos of Greece on 7 August 2010, however, for family reasons he eventually resigned in May 2012 and in December of the same year, he became head coach of Valencia, and then returned for the third time, to take charge of Athletic Bilbao.

He was appointed as Barcelona's new coach on 29 May 2017, having signed a contract for two seasons, and one additional season. He was fired from Barcelona on 13 January 2020.

Ernesto Valverde Information

Now that we know the Spanish coach much better, in this section of

Ernesto Valverde biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Ernesto Valverde nationality

to let you know him even better.

Ernesto Valverde Bio

• Full Name: Ernesto Valverde Tejedor

• Nickname: Txingurri

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Ernesto Valverde Physical Stats

• Weight: 70 Kg

• Height: 1.72 m

• Eye Color: Brown

• Hair Color: Dark Brown

Ernesto Valverde Football Information

• Position: Striker

• Jersey Number: 11

• Professional Debut: 1982

Ernesto Valverde Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 9 February 1964

• Birth Place: Viandar de la Vera, Spain

• Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

• Nationality: Spanish

Now stay tuned to this section of

Ernesto Valverde biography

as we want to share some info about

Ernesto Valverde childhood

.

Ernesto Valverde Early Life

Ernesto Valverde was born in Extremadura but shortly afterwards his family relocated to the Basque Country. He played for Deportivo Alavés in Vitoria. Later, he went on to play for

Sport.

His breakthrough came when he arrived in June 1986 at Espanyol, a club he joined thanks to coach

. In the 1986-1987 season, he managed to finish third in the league with

. In 1988, Espanyol, with Valverde as a regular starter, advanced to the final of the UEFA Cup, where they lost the final on penalties to Bayer Leverkusen.

Ernesto Valverde and another Espanyol player, Miquel Soler, transferred to

in the summer of 1988, which was coached by Johan Cruijff. He played for two seasons at Barça but was unable to establish himself because of injuries.

He then moved to

, coached by Javier Clemente. Between 1990 and 1996 he scored 50 goals in 188 games for the club. Valverde decided to end his playing career at RCD Mallorca.

Valverde has played one match with the

on 10 October 1990 against Iceland. At that time he was injured during a training camp, causing a strong dispute between his then coach, Javier Clemente, and the Spanish Football Federation.

Ernesto Valverde Profile

From 1997 onwards, he began his coaching career with Athletic Bilbao's junior team, where he won the Nike Cup in 1998, the unofficial world championship for junior clubs. Afterwards, he managed Athletic's second team.

The Athletic Club's board of directors offered him the opportunity to coach the first team in 2003. Athletic finished fifth in the league in the 2003-2004 season and reached the UEFA Cup with excellent football.

However, in the 2004-2005 season, a conflict with the club's president Fernando Lamikiz forced Ernesto Valverde to step down from his position. Nevertheless, Valverde's team achieved a historic 1-7 victory over Standard Liege in the UEFA Cup and made it to the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup.

Espanyol

Following a year off, he was hired by Espanyol in 2006. Espanyol's attacking football took them all the way to the UEFA Cup final, with the help of goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz, midfielder Coro and centre-forward Walter Pandiani. Espanyol was defeated in the final in Glasgow by Sevilla FC in a penalty shoot-out. Valverde managed Espanyol for one more season.

Now stay tuned to this section of Ernesto Valverde biography as we want to share some info about his coaching career in Greece.

Olympiacos

He signed a two-year contract with

for the 2008-2009 season, after stepping down from Espanyol. He was eliminated in European competitions by Anorthosis in the third round of the UEFA Champions League and by

in the first round of the UEFA Cup.

Moreover, he managed the double by winning the Super League and a thrilling Cup final against AEK (4-4) which was decided only after 34 penalty kicks. He left the Greek club at the end of the season to return to Spain.

Villarreal CF

He took over

at the beginning of June of that same year. He managed to survive a poor start to the season, which led to the Yellows being bottom on matchday 7 with only three points.

Unfortunately for him, although they won seven of the next 13 matches and reached the next round of the UEFA Europa League, he was fired on 31 January 2010 after a 2-0 defeat to Osasuna, which left the team with 26 points, in 10th place.

Return to Olympiacos

After a half-year on the sidelines, he was back on the Olympiacos bench in August 2010, only to win the league title again with the Greek side in March 2011. Furthermore, in the 2010-2011 UEFA Europa League, he was knocked out in the third qualifying round by Maccabi Tel Aviv.

They finished third in the 2011-2012 UEFA Champions League group with nine points, qualifying for the final rounds of the UEFA Europa League, only to be eliminated by Metalist in the round of 16. He then went on to defend the league championship with Olympiacos in April 2012, thus winning his third Greek Super League.

Following his announcement that he would resign at the end of the season for personal reasons, he claimed another double by winning the cup final with a goal from David Fuster in the 119th minute of extra time.

Valencia CF

He was recruited by

in early December 2012 as a successor to Mauricio Pellegrino. Having been in the middle of the table before Valverde's arrival, the club climbed back up to the places that led to the Champions League. Although Valencia significantly improved their play, they failed to beat

in the last eight of the Champions League. The season ended with Valencia in 5th place.

Now stay tuned to this section of

Ernesto Valverde biography

as we want to share some info about his coaching career at Athletic Club.

Athletic Bilbao

Valverde announced on 1 June 2013 that he was stepping down from Valencia, and was replaced by Miroslav Djukic. He was appointed Athletic Bilbao's coach for the second time on 20 June 20135. During the 2013-2014 season, he was able to lead Athletic to the

by finishing 4th in La Liga.

The following season, 2014-2015, Athletic reached the final of the Spanish Cup. He extended his contract for another year on 21 May 2015 and in March 2016 he renewed it for another year. When his contract expired on 23 May 2017, he departed the Basque club after four seasons on the bench.

FC Barcelona

He was named Barcelona coach on 29 May 2017, as a replacement for Luis Enrique10. His assistant Jon Aspiazu, with whom he has worked since 2002, was also brought in. The season started well for Valverde, who finished the first half of the season with a total of 54 points (17 wins, 3 draws, no losses), 11 points clear of Atletico Madrid, 14 clear of Valencia and 19 clear of Real Madrid.

The Barcelona of Valverde established a new unbeaten record in

with a run of 33 matches without defeat. Barcelona claimed the Spanish Cup on 21 April 2018, when they beat Sevilla FC 5-0 in the final.

On 29th April 2018, Barcelona clinched the Spanish league title, with a record of 36 consecutive games without defeat.

He extended his contract with Barcelona until 202011 on 15 February 2019. Just a few days later, on 27 February, during his 100th game in charge, Barcelona overcame Real Madrid 3-0 to advance to the Spanish Cup final. Barcelona won again against Real Madrid three days later on the 26th matchday of the league.

Barcelona was crowned Spanish champions for the second year in a row on 27 April 2019. On 7 May 2019, Barça was knocked out of the Champions League for the second time in two years after a 3-0 victory at the Camp Nou, and a 4-0 defeat at Anfield in the return match against Liverpool.

It was a mixed start to the following season for the Catalan side, with a mixture of high scoring games and good play with some concerning defeats. Nevertheless, performances improved slightly and Barcelona was in a tight battle for the lead with Real Madrid, and by December they were level on points.

However, the tie was not interrupted in the Clasico, which was delayed to that month, with the two top teams in La Liga drawing 0-0 at Camp Nou. It was on 11 January 2020, when, having been knocked out in the semi-final of the Spanish Super Cup by Atlético de Madrid, they announced the sacking of Valverde and the appointment of Quique Setién.

Style of Play

While he was a forward during his playing days, he has an attacking and entertaining playing style as a head coach. While at most of his clubs before joining Barcelona he played using a 4-2-3-1 system of play, but after arriving at Camp Nou he almost always played with 4-3-3 attacking.

Reception

Ernesto Valverde is one of those names in the world of football that has gained much of his reputation as a coach rather than when he used to play football. At the moment, he is one of the most decorated Spanish football coaches who still can add to his numerous list of awards and trophies as he is just 57 years old now.

Ernesto Valverde outside Football

Ernesto Valverde, the former Barcelona coach, has a different hobby other than just football: he is a photographer. The Extremaduran coach has been a fan of this art since his time as a player and in 2013 he had the privilege of having 'Medio Tiempo' published, which is an extensive photographic work with his best creations by the hand of La Fábrica Editorial.

The 66 black and white photographs that Valverde took between 2004 and 2012 portray his surroundings on and off the pitch, moving beyond the purely documentary and transcending the reflection on the scenes and characters immortalised in his melancholic photographs.

Those included travel landscapes, social snapshots -especially of Greece-, the atmosphere of the football stadium, family portraits and portraits of his teammates.

Reading is another of Ernesto Valverde’s hobbies, and the list goes on with chess and cycling. He is a close friend of the writer, David Trueba.

Ernesto Valverde Personal Life

In this section of Ernesto Valverde biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Ernesto Valverde life story

and

Ernesto Valverde religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

The former FC Barcelona boss has been married to Juncal Díez for more than two decades. Their love has resulted in the birth of three children who are now teenagers.

The Cáceres-born coach does not usually give interviews, let alone talk about his family, but on some occasions, he has spoken about them. "Having three children is more adventurous than going to Greece to coach," he said years ago, after his return from his adventure in the Greek competition.

"Yes, it is true that my wife and I had the idea of three children, maybe even four. They are now 18, 16 and 14. But when they were younger, between 2 and 7, we didn't stop doing things, we went out with them, with all the bags, the chairs.", said Ernesto, in the same interview.

Philanthropy

During his career as a football coach, especially in Greece, Ernesto Valverde has always been a part of charitable activities. In 2012, for the first time, the famous Spanish coach exhibited his photo collection for the first time in Greece as part of a charity event.

Legal Issues

At the time of writing this article, there are no reports of any legal issues or disputes regarding Ernesto Valverde either in the English or Spanish media.

Ernesto Valverde Career Statistics

In this section of Ernesto Valverde biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

For fifteen years between 1982 and 1997, Ernesto Valverde has played a total of 420 matches for many Spanish clubs and scored 104 goals. The majority of his playing career was spent at Athletic Club.

International

Having played in the youth ranks of the Spanish national football team, in 1990, Ernesto Valverde appeared in his first and last match for the senior Spanish national team. Three years later, he also played a match for the Basque Country national team.

Managerial

Since the start of his coaching career in June 2002 and as of 13 January 2020, Ernesto Valverde has managed his team in a total of 783 matches and with 416 wins, 168 draws and 199 defeats, he has a win ratio of 53.13 percent.

Ernesto Valverde Honors

As a player, he has won the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners' Cup with Barcelona and was the runner-up of the UEFA Cup with Espanyol.

His trophies and awards as a coach are much more and include Super League Greece, Greek Cup, Supercopa de España, La Liga, Copa del Rey and some others. In the 2015-16 season, he has managed to win the UEFA La Liga Coach of the Year.

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