Eusebio Sacristán Mena (; born 13 April 1964), known simply as Eusebio in his playing days, is a Spanish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former player who played as a central midfielder. He had a 20-year playing career, which started and ended at Real Valladolid, and won an array of domestic and European silverware in his seven seasons at Barcelona. Internationally, he represented Spain at

Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The tournament crowned the Nethe ...

. Eusebio began his coaching career at Barcelona and went on to lead

Celta Celta is Galician, Portuguese and Spanish for the Celts. It may also refer to: * Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), an English teaching certificate * Celta (train), an international train service connecting Vigo and Port ...

Barcelona B Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

and Girona.

Playing career

Club

Born in

La Seca La Seca is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2016 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 1,105 inhabitants. See also *Cuisine of the province of Valladolid T ...

Province of Valladolid Valladolid () is a Provinces of Spain, province of northwest Spain, in the central part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. It has a population of 520,716 people in a total of 225 munici ...

, Eusebio started playing professionally with hometown's Real Valladolid, being an automatic first-choice from an early age and moving to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

for 1987–88. After that sole season in Madrid he joined FC Barcelona, proceeding to be one of coach Johan Cruyff's most used squad members in the subsequent years – he played the full 90 minutes at both the victorious 1989 Cup Winners' Cup and the

1992 European Cup Final The 1992 European Cup Final was a football match held on 20 May 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Sampdoria of Italy and Barcelona of Spain. Barcelona won the game 1–0 after extra time, thanks to a Ronald Koeman free kick, to record thei ...

s. Eusebio could only manage 36 appearances in his last two seasons combined, this prompting a move to

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), ...

in 1995 where he posted two more solid campaigns. He retired in 2002 at the age of 38 with Valladolid, having played 543 La Liga matches (the only division he competed in after being promoted to his first club's first team), third-best in the competition only behind Andoni Zubizarreta and Raúl.

International

Eusebio earned 15 caps for Spain, the first coming on 24 September 1986 in a friendly match with Greece, in Gijón. He was subsequently picked for the final squad at UEFA Euro 1988, collecting no appearances as the national team exited in the group stage in West Germany.

Coaching career

Upon retiring, Sacristán opened a football school in Valladolid for 6-to-12-year-old children. He also obtained his coaching degree and, from 2003 to 2008, was part of Frank Rijkaard's staff at Barcelona. On 2 March 2009, Eusebio was named head coach of another former club, Celta, as the Galician side struggled in the second division. The following season was not any better, as although the team eventually retained their division status with ease they struggled until the last month of competition; he was let go when his contract expired in June 2010. Eusebio returned to Barcelona for 2011–12, being appointed the

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

's manager after

Luis Enrique Luis Enrique Martínez García (; born 8 May 1970), known as Luis Enrique, is a Spanish football manager and former player. A versatile player with good technique, he was capable of playing in several different positions, but usually played as ...

left for A.S. Roma. He led them to the third position in his third year; on 9 February 2015, however, following a string of poor results, he was relieved of his duties and was replaced by youth coach

Jordi Vinyals Jordi Vinyals Martori (born 24 November 1963 in Cardedeu, Province of Barcelona, Catalonia) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a midfielder, currently manager of Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, co ...

. On 9 November 2015, Eusebio was named manager of top flight club

after the dismissal of

David Moyes David William Moyes ( ; born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Premier League club West Ham United. He was previously the manager of Preston North End, Everton, Manches ...

. On 18 March 2018, he was himself fired. On 7 June 2018, after three months without a club, Eusebio was appointed as manager of

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, it plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 Segunda División play-offs. Girona holds its home matches at ...

, replacing Sevilla FC-bound

Pablo Machín Pablo Machín Díez (; born 7 April 1975) is a Spanish manager. he is the currently head coach La Liga club of Elche. Playing career Born in Soria, Machín was a CD Numancia youth graduate. Despite making five first team appearances during the ...

Personal life

At the end of 2020, Eusebio suffered a severe cranial injury from a fall in Valladolid, and was placed in an induced coma.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Club

Barcelona * La Liga: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94 * Copa del Rey: 1989–90 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

: 1991–92 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1988–89 * UEFA Super Cup:

Valladolid *

Copa de la Liga The Copa de la Liga (League Cup in Spanish) was a Spanish football tournament created in 1982. Due to time constraints, saturation and club pressure, the competition only lasted four years, being cancelled in 1986. Winning the trophy helped two ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

International

Spain U21 * UEFA European Under-21 Championship:

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Individual

La Liga Manager of the Month The Manager of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best La Liga manager each month of the season. Winners Multiple winners The below table lists all the people that have won on more than one occasion. Awards w ...

: February 2016, November 2016

References

External links

Real Sociedad official profile
* *
FC Barcelona profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacristan, Eusebio 1964 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Valladolid Spanish footballers Footballers from Castile and León Association football midfielders La Liga players Real Valladolid Promesas players Real Valladolid players Atlético Madrid footballers FC Barcelona players RC Celta de Vigo players Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Spain international footballers UEFA Euro 1988 players Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers RC Celta de Vigo managers FC Barcelona Atlètic managers Real Sociedad managers Girona FC managers FC Barcelona non-playing staff