Imanol Alguacil Barrenetxea (born 4 July 1971), known simply as Imanol as a player, is a Spanish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, currently a

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

club Al-Shabab. He made 121 appearances in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

over nine seasons, scoring eight goals while representing

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

and

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

. In 2014, he started working as a manager, with a four-year spell with

Real Sociedad B Real Sociedad de Fútbol "B" (also known as Sanse) is a Spanish football team based in San Sebastián, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1955, it is the reserve team of Real Sociedad and plays in Primera Federación � ...

. He briefly coached the club's senior team in spring 2018, and returned to take full charge in the winter of the same year.

Playing career

Born in Orio,

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, Basque Country, Imanol was a

youth graduate. He made his senior debut with the reserves, spending two full seasons in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. On 29 September 1990, Imanol made his first-team – and

– debut, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 away loss against

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo ( Asturian: Real Uviéu) is a Spanish professional football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926, the club plays in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system. The club plays at ...

. He was promoted to the main squad in the summer of 1991, featuring regularly during the following campaigns. Imanol scored his first professional goal on 20 September 1992, tying an eventual 2–1 away win over

Albacete Albacete ( , , ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the area around the city is known as Los Llan ...

. He was used rarely in the final years of his stint at the

Anoeta Stadium Anoeta Stadium (), currently known as the Reale Arena for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain that was inaugurated in 1993. The stadium lies at the Anoeta Sports Complex, and is mostly used for ...

as he dealt with several injury problems, leaving the club in 1998 after playing only four matches during the season. In the 1998 off-season, Imanol joined

also of the top division, appearing sparingly in his first year and suffering relegation. After returning to the top flight in 2000, he was released, and moved to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

Real Jaén Real Jaén Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Jaén, Spain, Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1929 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Nuevo Estadio de La Vict ...

. Imanol then resumed his career in the third tier, representing Cartagena and

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

. He retired with the latter side in 2003, aged 32.

Coaching career

On 26 July 2011, Alguacil returned to his first club Real Sociedad, being appointed manager of the youth setup. On 17 June 2013 he was named reserve team coach

Asier Santana Asier Santana Clavo (born 3 February 1979) is a Spanish football manager. Manager career Born in Idiazabal, Goierri, Gipuzkoa, Santana joined Real Sociedad in 2006, being appointed manager of the youth setup. In 2008, he moved to the reserve s ...

's assistant, and was also in charge of the main squad along with Santana in November 2014 following

Jagoba Arrasate Jagoba Arrasate Elustondo (born 22 April 1978) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a forward, currently manager of La Liga club Mallorca. After an amateur playing career, he rose through the coaching ranks of Real Sociedad where he m ...

's dismissal. After the arrival of

David Moyes David William Moyes (born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player, who currently manages Premier League club Everton F.C., Everton. He was the 2003, 200 ...

in November 2014, Alguacil was included in the first team staff, but he was appointed manager of the B side later that month. On 19 March 2018, he replaced the fired

Eusebio Sacristán Eusebio Sacristán Mena (; born 13 April 1964), known simply as Eusebio in his playing days, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He was also a manager. He started and ended his 20-year senior career ...

at the helm of the main squad until the end of the season. Imanol Alguacil 2018

In the summer of 2018, Alguacil returned to the reserves and

Asier Garitano Asier Garitano Aguirrezábal (born 6 December 1969) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward, who is currently in charge of Sporting de Gijón. During a 14-year senior career, he appeared in 134 matches in the Se ...

took over the senior role, but in December of the same year the latter was dismissed following a poor sequence of results and the former again became the first team coach. Following a strong start to the 2019–20 campaign, he was given a one-year contract extension. Alguacil led Real to their first trophy since 1987 on 3 April 2021, with a 1–0 victory against Basque rivals

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

in the

2020 Copa del Rey final The 2020 Copa del Rey final was a football match that decided the winner of the 2019–20 Copa del Rey, the 118th edition of Spain's Copa del Rey, primary football cup (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The match was pl ...

(postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

). In the post-match press conference, he celebrated by putting on a team jersey and scarf and chanting in joy. On 14 November 2022, Alguacil extended his contract to 2025. The following 17 January, with a 1–0 home win over

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 ...

in the last 16 of the cup, he reached 100 victories for Real in 205 games; a club record nine-match winning streak ended in the next round with a 1–0 loss at

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

. With a fourth-place finish, he secured a fourth consecutive European season, and the side's first in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

for a decade. On 24 April 2025, Alguacil announced that he would leave the

at the end of the season.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Real Sociedad *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 2019–20 Individual *

Miguel Muñoz Trophy The Miguel Muñoz Trophy () is a association football, football award for team managers in Spanish football, established by Spanish newspaper Marca (newspaper), Marca in 2006, in memory of the legendary Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid manager Mi ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alguacil, Imanol 1971 births Living people People from Orio, Spain 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Gipuzkoa Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers Villarreal CF players Real Jaén footballers FC Cartagena footballers Burgos CF footballers Basque Country men's international footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División B managers Real Sociedad B managers Real Sociedad managers Real Sociedad non-playing staff