Juan Carlos Vicens Gómez (born 12 February 1983) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is the current manager of Portuguese club

SC Braga Sporting Clube de Braga (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. Best known for the men's professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese foo ...

Playing career

Born in ,

Ses Salines Ses Salines (, ) is a small Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the south of Majorca, one of the Balearic Islands, Spain. References

Municipalities in Mallorca Populated places in Mallorca {{Balearics-geo-stub ...

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

, Vicens played for the youth sides of UD Colonia, CD Ses Salines and SD La Salle before joining

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

at the age of 14. After finishing his formation in 2002, he was promoted to

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

CD Ferriolense in

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

. Vicens continued to play mainly in the lower leagues in the following years, representing CD Santanyí in the fourth tier, and

CD Atlético Baleares Club Deportivo Atlético Baleares, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Palma de Mallorca, Palma, the capital of the Mallorca, island of Mallorca, in the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. Foun ...

and CD Cala d'Or in the Regional Preferente de Mallorca. In 2007, he moved abroad to study economics at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, and played for the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

. In April 2008, Vicens was announced as one of the 21 players of the newly-created

Austin Aztex U23 Austin Aztex U23 was an American soccer team based in Round Rock, Texas, United States. Founded in 2007, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2009, after which the franc ...

. After the season ended in July, he was offered a one-year deal to play for the first team,

Austin Aztex FC Austin Aztex FC was an American professional association football, soccer team based in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 2008, the team played in USL First Division, and in USL Division of the USSF D2 Pro League, the second tier of the A ...

, but rejected after the financial offer was not "life-changing", and returned to his home country to play for CE Campos in the fourth division. Vicens retired in 2010, aged 27, due to an injury.

Managerial career

Early career

Immediately after retiring, Vicens returned to Ses Salines after being named manager of the club in the Tercera Regional. He led the club to two consecutive promotions before returning to Santanyí on 2 July 2013, now as manager. Despite suffering relegation in his first season, Vicens remained in charge of Santanyí in the following two seasons, missing out promotion in the play-offs. During the 2015–16 campaign, he also worked as an assistant to Nico López at Llosetense. Vicens departed Santanyí on 18 June 2016, but continued to work with López at Llosetense.

Manchester City

In July 2017, Vicens moved to England to join

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

as a youth coach, having sent his CV to the club the previous year. He worked as an assistant to the Under-12 and Under-13 teams in his first season, and was promoted as an assistant to the Under-18 team the following year. In August 2020, Vicens was promoted to Under-18 main coach, replacing his previous boss

Gareth Taylor Gareth Keith Taylor (born 25 February 1973) is a football manager and former player who most recently served as the head coach of Manchester City Women. He began his career as a defender at Bristol Rovers, having left the Southampton youth t ...

. On his first season in charge, he guided Manchester City Under-18s to win the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

. In July 2021, Vicens was again promoted, becoming

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Catalans, Catalan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player from Spain who has been the manager of club Manchester City F.C., Ma ...

's assistant in charge of the first team at Manchester City. On 6 May of the following year,

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

team

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to t ...

announced that Vicens would take charge of its first team from 1 July 2022, after having signed a two-year contract. However, in June, a few days after Heracles were relegated for the first time in 17 years, the deal collapsed and Vicens chose to stay on at Manchester City instead.

Braga

On 28 May 2025, Vicens was appointed manager of Portuguese

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

side

, signing a three-year contract.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vicens, Carlos 1983 births Living people Footballers from Mallorca Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Tercera División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players CD Atlético Baleares footballers Austin Aztex U23 players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Spanish football managers Tercera División managers Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol managers Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff S.C. Braga managers Spanish expatriate football managers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate football managers in England Expatriate football managers in Portugal 21st-century Spanish sportsmen