Vicente Javier 'Xavi' Valero Verchili (born 28 February 1973), is a Spanish former

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 ...

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 ...

and current goalkeeping coach for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

team

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

Football career

Player

Valero was born in

Castellón de la Plana Castellón de la Plana (in ), or simply Castellón (), is the capital city of the province of Castellón, in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Azahar by the Mediterranean Sea. Th ...

in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

. He played 67 games in

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 ...

, winning promotion with

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 ...

(1997), Real Murcia (2003) and

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in , holding home ...

in 2006, despite not being first-choice in any of those campaigns. He also represented Córdoba in that division, and played 92

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 ...

matches, mainly for his hometown club Castellón. Released by Córdoba in 2004, but still training with the club, Valero moved abroad for the only time as a player in January 2005, to sign a one-month non-contract deal with

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

Football League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

. Manager Denis Smith signed him based on video footage. As first-choice Andy Dibble had a thigh injury, Valero made his debut on 11 January in a 2–2 draw at Peterborough United. He made two more league appearances for the Red Dragons, as well as a 2–1 win in the

FAW Premier Cup The FAW Premier Cup (until 1998 the FAW Invitation Cup) was a Wales, Welsh association football, football cup competition, organised annually by the Football Association of Wales from 1997 to 2008. Since the FAW excluded clubs playing in English fo ...

quarter-finals away to Haverfordwest County on 18 January, and shared teams with compatriot striker Juan Ugarte.

Goalkeeping coach

After retiring from playing, Valero took his coaching badges, gaining a Masters in Goalkeeper Coaching from the

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas de Madrid, Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the natio ...

(RFEF) and a Master of Sports Psychology UNED 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 ...

. After José Ochotorena decided to return to Spain to work with

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He was most recently the manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo, Celta Vigo. Beníte ...

appointed Valero head goalkeeping coach of Liverpool in July 2007. He was praised by Liverpool striker

Fernando Torres Fernando José Torres Sanz (; born 20 March 1984) is a Spanish Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former Football player, player who played as a Striker (association football), striker. He is the curr ...

as one of the biggest reasons for his goals; during training, he instructed the players on how goalkeepers in future games react to one-on-one situations. Valero remained in Benítez's coaching staff at

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

and

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 ...

. In June 2018, he was named as goalkeeping coach as part of

Manuel Pellegrini Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti (; ; born 16 September 1953) is a Chilean professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Real Betis. As a coach, he has managed clubs in S ...

's staff at

References

External links

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Xavi Valero
at BDFutbol {{DEFAULTSORT:Valero, Xavi 1973 births Living people Footballers from Castellón de la Plana Spanish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Segunda División players Segunda División B players CD Castellón footballers RCD Mallorca B players RCD Mallorca players CD Logroñés footballers Real Murcia CF players Córdoba CF players Wrexham A.F.C. players Recreativo de Huelva players UDA Gramenet footballers English Football League players Liverpool F.C. non-playing staff Real Madrid CF non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Expatriate men's footballers in Wales Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Wales Association football goalkeeping coaches Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy