Josep "Pep" Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) 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 ...

coach. As well as working as assistant at several clubs, he managed Cornellà,

Figueres Figueres (; ) is the capital city of Alt Empordà county, in the Girona region, Catalonia, Spain. The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Dalí Theatre and Museum, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which att ...

, Espanyol B,

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

Atlético Malagueño Club Atlético Malagueño, shortened to Atlético Malagueño, () is a Spanish football team based in Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1990, it is the reserve team of Málaga CF, and currently plays in , holding home ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly referred to by the acronym SPAL (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. During the 2024–25 season the team played in Serie C, the third tier of the Italian foot ...

and

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

Career

Early years

Born in

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 ...

, Catalonia Clotet only appeared for local amateurs

Igualada Igualada () is a municipality and capital of Anoia county in Penedès, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the left bank of the Anoia River and at the western end of the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona Railway. Igualada is the capital and central ...

as a player. He became a coach while still in his 20s, starting with Cornellà then moving to

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

's youth teams. Clotet began the 2006–07 season with another side in his native region,

, being fired after only nine matches as they eventually suffered relegation from

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 ...

. He subsequently returned to his previous club, still in charge of the youths. Clotet returned to senior football in the

2009–10 Segunda División B The 2009–10 Segunda División B season was the 33rd since its establishment. The first matches of the season were played on 29 August 2009, and the season ended on 20 June 2010 with the promotion play-off finals. Group 1 *Teams from Basque C ...

campaign with Espanyol's reserves. He met the same fate as in his previous experience: he was sacked following the seventh round, and the team were relegated.

Sweden and Norway

Clotet worked in Sweden for two years, starting as an assistant to

Roland Nilsson Nils Lennart Roland Nilsson (born 27 November 1963) is a Swedish professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. As a player, Nilsson played 116 games for Sweden, making ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, who won the

2010 Allsvenskan The 2010 Allsvenskan, part of the 2010 Swedish football season, was the 86th Allsvenskan season. It began on 13 March 2010 and ended on 7 November 2010. AIK were the defending champions. Malmö FF secured their 16th title in the last round after ...

title. He then joined fellow league club

as head coach, finishing 16th and last in the

2011 Allsvenskan The 2011 Allsvenskan, part of the 2011 Swedish football season, was the 87th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The preliminary 2011 fixtures were released on 15 December 2010. The season began on 2 April 2011 and ended on 23 ...

. On 20 September 2011, Clotet joined

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

as coach in new manager

Åge Hareide Åge Fridtjof Hareide (born 23 September 1953) is a Norwegian former football coach and player who last managed the Iceland national team. In his playing career, he played for Hødd and Molde in Norway as well as Manchester City and Norwich Cit ...

's backroom staff for the

2012 Norwegian Premier League The 2012 Tippeligaen was the 68th completed season of top division association football, football in Norway. The competition began on 23 March 2012 and ended on 18 November 2012, with a summer break from 28 May to 30 June. Molde FK, Molde were the ...

season. After Hareide was sacked and Kjell Jonevret was appointed as his replacement, he left to look for a new challenge.

Atlético Malagueño

On 11 July 2012, Clotet was appointed as manager of

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 ...

club

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

's reserveswhere he helped develop several players who would reach the first team shortly after; their progress was aided by Málaga's unstable economic situation. He left the club after only one season, not being able to attain promotion.

Swansea City

On 19 November 2013, Clotet was appointed academy consultant at

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

as part of

Michael Laudrup Michael Laudrup (, born 15 June 1964) is a Danish professional Association football, football coach and former player. Renowned for his composure, passing, vision, technical skills, ball control, and dribbling ability, Laudrup is widely regarded ...

's coaching staff. In May of the following year, he was promoted to assistant manager under

Garry Monk Garry Alan Monk (born 6 March 1979) is an English football manager and former professional player who was most recently the head coach of club Cambridge United. Monk, a centre back, began his playing career with Torquay United before joining ...

. In November 2015, Clotet was offered the manager's job at

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

, but rejected the offer out of loyalty to Monk. He left his post at the Welsh club on 9 December of that year alongside first-team coaches James Beattie and

Kristian O'Leary Kristian Denis O'Leary (born 30 August 1977) is a Welsh football coach and former professional footballer. He is best known for his spells both as a player and coach at Swansea City. He formerly managed Welsh sides Carmarthen Town and Neath, a ...

, following the sacking of Monk.

Leeds United

On 13 June 2016, Clotet joined Monk's staff at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

as assistant head coach. On 25 May 2017, after the pair led the team to seventh place in the 2016–17 Championship, Monk resigned. A month later, after the appointment as manager of

Thomas Christiansen Thomas Christiansen Tarín (born 11 March 1973) is a football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current manager of the Panama national team. Left-footed, he played for a number of clubs in Danish, Spanish and Ger ...

, who was intending to bring in his own backroom staff, director of football Victor Orta confirmed that Clotet wanted to leave to seek a new challenge.

Oxford United

Clotet was appointed manager of League One club

on 1 July 2017. He was sacked on 22 January 2018, with a record of 12 wins from 36 matches in charge.

Birmingham City

When Monk took over as manager of Championship club

on 4 March 2018, Clotet was appointed as his assistant. He became caretaker head coach in June 2019 after Monk was sacked; ahead of the November meeting between Birmingham and Monk's new club,

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

, Monk claimed he had made an "error of judgment" in working with Clotet, suggested he was untrustworthy, and refused to shake his hand. After six months, during which Clotet made a start on implementing the board's footballing philosophy as well as demonstrating "coaching expertise, man-management and leadership skills, allied to exemplary professional conduct", and integrated the 16-year-old

Jude Bellingham Jude Victor William Bellingham (born 29 June 2003) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid and the England national football team, England national team. Finis ...

into a regular role in the first team, he was appointed as head coach on a permanent basis. Two months with only one league win at the end of the year was followed by the arrival of striker

Scott Hogan Scott Andrew Hogan (born 13 April 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Milton Keynes Dons. Hogan played in the youth system at Rochdale but was released in 2010. He entered non-league football, playing for Wood ...

, whose return to form sparked a ten-match unbeaten run in early 2020 which left the team 16th in the table when football was suspended 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 ...

. On 8 June, Clotet confirmed that he would leave the club at the end of the season to "explore other coaching opportunities", but after a series of poor results, he left by mutual consent on 8 July with four matches of the season remaining.

Brescia

On 5 February 2021, Clotet was hired as new head coach of Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club

, a club owned by Massimo Cellino, his former chairman at Leeds United. He guided Brescia to qualification to the promotion playoffs, where they were eliminated in the first round by

Cittadella Cittadella () is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around . There are fo ...

. Clotet and Brescia subsequently parted ways by the end of the season.

SPAL

On 2 July 2021, Clotet was officially unveiled as the new head coach of Italian Serie B club

. He was removed from his managerial duties on 5 January 2022, leaving SPAL three points above the relegation zone.

Second stint at Brescia

On 18 June 2022, Clotet agreed to return to Cellino's Brescia, signing a two-year deal with the ''Rondinelle''. After a good start of the season, Clotet experienced a negative string of results by December, leaving Brescia out of the relegation zone and leading to him being sacked on 21 December 2022. On 16 January 2023, however, Clotet was reinstated as head coach with immediate effect, only to be dismissed once again less than a month later, on 6 February, after he failed to improve the team results.

Torpedo Moscow

Clotet was appointed head coach of

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Torpedo Moscow Football Club Torpedo Moscow (, ''FK Torpedo Moskva''), known as Torpedo Moscow, is a Russian professional association football, football club based in Moscow. The club will return to the Russian Premier League in the 2025–26 season. Their c ...

on 28 March 2023. On 16 April 2023, in his third game in charge, against

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

, Clotet was sent off after gesturing at the referee following Spartak's third penalty kick in the first half. However, he did not leave for the dressing room as he was supposed to, but instead climbed into the stands and continued to instruct his team from there. On 13 May 2023, Torpedo lost their fifth league game in a row and lost their chances of avoiding direct relegation. The start of the second-tier

2023–24 Russian First League The 2023–24 Russian First League is the 32nd season of Russia's second-tier football league since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The season began in July 2023, and had a 3-month winter break between game weeks 20 and 21 (November to March) ...

campaign was below expectations as well, with five wins and five losses in the first 12 games, and in October 2023, Torpedo announced the dismissal of Josep Clotet.

Triestina

On 21 October 2024, Clotet returned to Italy, accepting the head coaching job at bottom-placed

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

club

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to US Triestina or just Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, in the northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Originally established in 1918, Triestina was one of the fo ...

. On 8 November, after

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

loanee Raimonds Krollis was sent off with a red card in the 34th minute in a match against

Giana Erminio Associazione Sportiva Giana Erminio S.r.l. is an Italian football club based in Gorgonzola, Lombardy. The team currently plays in Italy's . History The club was founded in 1909 as ''Unione Sportiva Argentia'', and later adopted the current name ...

, Clotet physically confronted Krollis as he returned to the sidelines by grabbing him by the collar and shoving him. Triestina would go on to lose the match 0–1 and in a press conference after the loss Clotet said that his reaction was justified due to the nature of Krollis' red card and that he had told Krollis that he was done playing for the club as long as he was the coach. Clotet was dismissed on 27 November 2024, after failing to turn the club's fortunes.

Media

Clotet worked as a pundit on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

' La Liga review, and also wrote a column for daily newspaper '' Marca''.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clotet, Pep 1977 births Sports coaches from Barcelona Living people Spanish men's footballers Men's association football players not categorized by position Spanish football managers UE Cornellà managers RCD Espanyol non-playing staff UE Figueres managers RCD Espanyol B managers Halmstads BK managers Viking FK non-playing staff Atlético Malagueño managers Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff Leeds United F.C. non-playing staff Oxford United F.C. managers Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff Birmingham City F.C. managers Brescia Calcio managers SPAL managers FC Torpedo Moscow managers US Triestina Calcio 1918 managers Segunda División B managers Allsvenskan managers English Football League managers Serie B managers Serie C managers Russian Premier League managers Russian First League managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Sweden Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Wales Expatriate football managers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate football managers in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate football managers in Russia Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Russia