Gaizka Garitano

Gaizka Garitano Aguirre (born 9 July 1975) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder, and current manager of Deportivo de La Coruña.

Over the course of 11 seasons he amassed Segunda División totals of 315 games and 37 goals, mainly with Bilbao Athletic and Eibar. In La Liga he represented Real Sociedad, during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons.

In 2009 Garitano entered coaching with Eibar, and became the first team coach in 2012. He won consecutive promotions in his first two seasons, and reached the top division with the club in 2014.

Playing career

Garitano was born in Bilbao, Basque Country. Grown through the ranks of Athletic Bilbao the nephew of another famed club midfielder, Ander Garitano,^[1] would however never make it past the reserves, also serving loans with modest clubs. In 1999, he joined Segunda División B team CD Ourense.

Garitano finally settled at SD Eibar in Segunda División – his second spell – and, in the 2004–05 season, as club captain, led the side to a fourth place in the league, with chances of an historical La Liga promotion until the last matchday.^[2]

Incidentally, Garitano would make his first top flight appearances with Real Sociedad,^[3][4] his debut coming on 27 August 2005 in a 0–3 away derby loss (he was already aged 30).^[5] After three seasons as an important first-team member he joined neighbours Deportivo Alavés, retiring in June 2009 at 34 after the club's relegation into the third division.^[6]

Managerial career

Immediately after retiring, having appeared in more than 300 matches in Spain's second level, Garitano moved into coaching, serving as assistant at also freshly relegated Eibar. He was appointed first-team manager for the 2012–13 campaign,^[7] which ended in promotion.^[8]

Garitano repeated the feat the following season, leading Eibar to the first position and the subsequent top flight promotion, a first ever for the club. In June 2014, he renewed his contract.^[9]

In 2014–15, the team collected 27 points from the first 19 games but, after only eight in the following 19, was finally relegated back in spite of a 3–0 home win over Córdoba CF in the last matchday. Subsequently, Garitano presented his resignation, stating he did not merit to continue.^[10]

On 6 July 2015 Garitano was appointed at the helm of Real Valladolid, replacing fired Rubi.^[11] On 21 October, as the side ranked dead last, he was sacked.^[12]

On 10 June 2016, Garitano replaced Víctor Sánchez as Deportivo de La Coruña manager.^[13]

Managerial statistics

As of 29 November 2016

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Eibar B[14][15]		30 June 2010	6 June 2012	7001760000000000000♠76	7001210000000000000♠21	7001220000000000000♠22	7001330000000000000♠33	7001670000000000000♠67	7001950000000000000♠95	−28	7001276300000000000♠27.63
Eibar[16][17][18]		6 June 2012	9 June 2015	7002135000000000000♠135	7001570000000000000♠57	7001370000000000000♠37	7001410000000000000♠41	7002162000000000000♠162	7002128000000000000♠128	+34	7001422200000000000♠42.22
Valladolid[19]		6 July 2015	21 October 2015	7001100000000000000♠10	7000200000000000000♠2	7000300000000000000♠3	7000500000000000000♠5	7001100000000000000♠10	7001150000000000000♠15	−5	7001200000000000000♠20.00
Deportivo La Coruña		10 June 2016	Present	7001140000000000000♠14	7000200000000000000♠2	7000400000000000000♠4	7000800000000000000♠8	7001130000000000000♠13	7001240000000000000♠24	−11	7001142900000000000♠14.29
Career Total				7002235000000000000♠235	7001820000000000000♠82	7001660000000000000♠66	7001870000000000000♠87	7002252000000000000♠252	7002262000000000000♠262	−10	7001348900000000000♠34.89

References

External links

• Real Valladolid profile (Spanish)
• Gaizka Garitano profile at BDFutbol
• Gaizka Garitano manager profile at BDFutbol