 Irureta in 1973 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano | ||
| Date of birth | (1948-04-01)1 April 1948 (age 77) | ||
| Place of birth | Irun, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Position | Attacking midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1965–1967 | Real Unión | 48 | (14) |
| 1967–1975 | Atlético Madrid | 208 | (48) |
| 1975–1980 | Athletic Bilbao | 136 | (22) |
| Total | 392 | (84) | |
| International career | |||
| 1969–1971 | Spain U23 | 4 | (0) |
| 1967 | Spain amateur | 4 | (2) |
| 1972–1975 | Spain | 6 | (0) |
| 1979 | Basque Country | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1984–1988 | Sestao | ||
| 1988–1989 | Logroñés | ||
| 1989–1993 | Real Oviedo | ||
| 1993 | Basque Country | ||
| 1993–1994 | Racing Santander | ||
| 1994–1995 | Athletic Bilbao | ||
| 1995–1997 | Real Sociedad | ||
| 1997–1998 | Celta Vigo | ||
| 1998–2005 | Deportivo La Coruña | ||
| 2006 | Real Betis | ||
| 2008 | Real Zaragoza | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano (born 1 April 1948),Irureta for short, is a Spanish retiredfootballattacking midfielder andmanager.
He had a distinguished playing career withAtlético Madrid andAthletic Bilbao, playing in 344La Liga games for both teams combined and scoring 70 goals.
Irureta managed several Spanish top flight clubs, most notablyDeportivo. He was the only person to have coached both the two majorGalician (Deportivo andCelta Vigo) andBasque (Athletic andReal Sociedad) sides.
Irureta was born inIrun,Gipuzkoa, making his senior debut for localReal Unión in 1965. Two years later he helped them reach thesecond division play-offs, before joiningAtlético Madrid later that year. During his time at the club he was part of a team that won twoLa Liga titles and aCopa del Rey, playing alongside the likes ofAdelardo,Luis Aragonés andJosé Eulogio Gárate.[1]
TheColchoneros also reached theEuropean Cup final in 1974, but afterthe winners,Bayern Munich, declined to participate in theIntercontinental Cup, they were invited as runners-up: facingIndependiente of Argentina the sidewon 2–1 on aggregate, with Irureta scoring one of the goals in the 2–0 second-leg home victory.[2]
After eight seasons at Atlético, Irureta returned to theBasque Country and signed forAthletic Bilbao. The highlight of his career there was winning two runners-up medals in 1977 – Spanish andUEFA Cups, as among his teammates were veteranJosé Ángel Iribar and an emergingJosé Ramón Alexanko.[3][4]
Irureta retired in 1980 aged 32, with more than 400 official matches to his credit and nearly 100 goals.
Irureta won sixcaps forSpain 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 2–0friendly win withUruguay, inMadrid.
Towards the end of his playing career, Irureta also played one game for theBasque Country national team.
As a coach, Irureta started with lowlySestao Sport Club, narrowly missing out on promotion in1986–87,[5][6][7] and joinedLogroñés four years later,[8][9] then ledReal Oviedo[10] to a sixth-place finish in the1990–91 season, with subsequentqualification to theUEFA Cup – he repeated the feat withCelta Vigo (where he was awardedManager of the Year titles by bothDon Balón andEl País)[11] in1998. In1994–95 he briefly returned to Athletic Bilbao,[12][13] then coached neighboursReal Sociedad.[14]
However, Irureta's greatest successes came withDeportivo de La Coruña[15] where he spent seven years,[16] winning anotherDon Balón coaching accolade in 2000. Inhis second year he ledDepor to its first ever league title,[17] adding runner-up finishes in2001 and2002 and third-places in the following two years while also reaching theUEFA Champions League quarter-finals in2001 and2002 and the semi-finalsin 2004; in2002 they also won the domestic cup, beatingReal Madrid at theSantiago Bernabéu Stadium.[18]
Irureta was appointed atReal Betis in June 2006 on a one-year contract,[19] being sacked on 21 December after the team's poor start tothe 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".[20][21]
In October 2007, Irureta put his name forward to be the new coach of English clubBolton Wanderers, but lost out in the running toGary Megson, and was also touted by December as possible replacement for Real Sociedad'sChris Coleman.[22]
Eventually, he took over atReal Zaragoza, after replacingVíctor Fernández.[23] 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,[24] and that he did not feel up to the task of stopping theAragonese side's slump into the relegation zone (eventually, theydropped down a tier). He was quickly replaced by former ZaragozagoalkeeperManolo Villanova, whom at the time was in charge ofHuesca.[25]
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||||
| Sestao |  | 10 June 1984 | 22 May 1988 | 186 | 87 | 41 | 58 | 046.77 | |
| Logroñés | | 22 May 1988 | 30 January 1989 | 21 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 023.81 | |
| Real Oviedo | | 27 June 1989 | 5 February 1993 | 156 | 54 | 49 | 53 | 034.62 | |
| Racing Santander | | 3 July 1993 | 9 June 1994 | 42 | 17 | 9 | 16 | 040.48 | [26] |
| Athletic Bilbao | | 9 June 1994 | 20 March 1995 | 35 | 13 | 9 | 13 | 037.14 | [27] |
| Real Sociedad | | 28 November 1995 | 6 July 1997 | 72 | 31 | 19 | 22 | 043.06 | [28] |
| Celta Vigo | | 6 July 1997 | 18 May 1998 | 44 | 22 | 9 | 13 | 050.00 | [29] |
| Deportivo La Coruña | | 18 May 1998 | 31 May 2005 | 377 | 187 | 90 | 100 | 049.60 | [30] |
| Real Betis | | 11 June 2006 | 22 December 2006 | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 023.53 | [31] |
| Real Zaragoza | | 22 January 2008 | 3 March 2008 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 016.67 | [32] |
| Career Total | 956 | 421 | 241 | 294 | 044.04 | — | |||
Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao
Deportivo