Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano (born 1 April 1948), Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired

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 ...

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and

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 ...

. He had a distinguished playing career with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

and

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 ...

, playing in 344

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 ...

games for both teams combined and scoring 70 goals. Irureta managed several Spanish top flight clubs, most notably Deportivo. He was the only person to have coached both the two major Galician (Deportivo and

Celta Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, 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), the club was foun ...

) and

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

(Athletic and

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, ...

) sides.

Playing career

Atlético Madrid

Irureta was born in

Irun Irun (, ) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as a Roman- Vasconic town. During the Spanish Civil War, ...

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 ...

, making his senior debut for local

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

in 1965. Two years later he helped them reach the second division play-offs, before joining

later that year. During his time at the club he was part of a team that won two

titles and a

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 ...

, playing alongside the likes of Adelardo,

Luis Aragonés Luis Aragonés Suárez (; 28 July 1938 – 1 February 2014) was a Spanish football player and manager. Aragonés spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the succes ...

and

José Eulogio Gárate José Eulogio Gárate Ormaechea (born 20 September 1944) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker for SD Eibar, SD Indautxu and Atlético Madrid. Born in Argentina, he pla ...

. The ''Colchoneros'' also reached the European Cup final in 1974, but after the winners,

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, declined to participate in the Intercontinental Cup, they were invited as runners-up: facing Independiente of Argentina the side won 2–1 on aggregate, with Irureta scoring one of the goals in the 2–0 second-leg home victory.

Athletic Bilbao

After eight seasons at Atlético, Irureta returned to the Basque Country and signed for

. The highlight of his career there was winning two runners-up medals in 1977 – Spanish and UEFA Cups, as among his teammates were veteran

José Ángel Iribar José Ángel Iribar Kortajarena (born 1 March 1943), nicknamed ''El Chopo'' ("the Populus, Poplar"), is a Spanish former professional association football, football goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper and Manager (association football ...

and an emerging

José Ramón Alexanko José Ramón Alexanko Ventosa (; born 19 May 1956), also known as Alexanko or Alesanco, is a Spanish retired football player and manager, who later served as director of football of Valencia. During his career the central defender played with ...

. Irureta retired in 1980 aged 32, with more than 400 official matches to his credit and nearly 100 goals.

Spain

Irureta won six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in a three-year span (exactly two years and 11 months). However, he did not experience a successful time with the national side, and never took part in any major tournament; his debut came on 23 May 1972 in a 2–0 friendly win with

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. Towards the end of his playing career, Irureta also played one game for the Basque Country national team.

Coaching career

Early years and Deportivo

As a coach, Irureta started with lowly

Sestao Sport Club Sestao Sport Club was a Spanish football club based in Sestao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded it 1916 it held home matches at ''Campo Municipal de las Llanas'', with a capacity of 8,900 seats. History Sestao managed to ...

and joined Logroñés four years later, then led

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 ...

to a sixth-place finish in the 1990–91 season, with subsequent

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

to the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

– he repeated the feat with

(where he was awarded ''Manager of the Year'' titles by both '' Don Balón'' and ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'') in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. In 1994–95 he briefly returned to Athletic Bilbao, then coached neighbours

. However, Irureta's greatest successes came with

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

where he spent seven years, winning another ''Don Balón'' coaching accolade in 2000. In his second year he led ''Depor'' to its first ever league title, adding runner-up finishes in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and third-places in the following two years while also reaching 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 ...

quarter-finals in

and

and the semi-finals in 2004; in 2002 they also won the domestic cup, beating

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

Betis

Irureta was appointed at

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

in June 2006 on a one-year contract, being sacked on 21 December after the team's poor start to the campaign. He stated: "My contract has been rescinded by mutual agreement but I made the first move. We could have continued like this for much longer but it wasn't good".

Later career

In October 2007, Irureta put his name forward to be the new coach of English club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

, but lost out in the running to

Gary Megson Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager. He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and ...

, and was also touted by December as possible replacement for Real Sociedad's Chris Coleman. Eventually, he took over at

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

, after replacing

Víctor Fernández Víctor Fernández Braulio (born 28 November 1960) is a Spanish football manager. He had four spells with his hometown team Zaragoza, winning the Copa del Rey in 1994 and the Cup Winners' Cup a year later. He also led Tenerife, RC Celta de Vi ...

. However, on 3 March 2008, after merely one and a half months in charge, he resigned, arguing that never as a manager had he lost four games in a row, and that he did not feel up to the task of stopping the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

ese side's slump into the relegation zone (eventually, they dropped down a tier). He was quickly replaced by former Zaragoza

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Manolo Villanova, whom at the time was in charge of

Huesca Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Atlético Madrid *

: 1969–70, 1972–73 *

Copa del Generalísimo 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 Spanish f ...

: 1971–72; runner-up: 1974–75 * Intercontinental Cup:

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

runner-up: 1973–74 Athletic Bilbao *

runner-up: 1976–77 *Copa del Rey runner-up: 1976–77

Manager

Deportivo *La Liga: 1999–2000 *

: 2001–02 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Individual

* Don Balón Award: Best Coach 1999–2000Spain – Footballer of the Year
at RSSSF

References

External links

* * *

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Irureta, Javier 1948 births Living people Footballers from Irun Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Tercera División players Real Unión footballers Atlético Madrid footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Spain men's amateur international footballers Spain men's international footballers Basque Country men's international footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers Sestao Sport managers CD Logroñés managers Real Oviedo managers Racing de Santander managers Athletic Bilbao managers Real Sociedad managers RC Celta de Vigo managers Deportivo de La Coruña managers Real Betis managers Real Zaragoza managers 20th-century Spanish sportsmen