Felipe Miñambres Fernández (born 29 April 1965) is a Spanish retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as an attacking midfielder, currently director of football of

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

. He spent 12 seasons in La Liga, with Sporting de Gijón (two years) and Tenerife (ten), amassing totals of 348 games and 42 goals. He represented Spain at the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...

. Miñambres worked with several clubs as a manager since 1999, being in charge of Tenerife, Salamanca, Rayo Vallecano and Levante in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

Club career

A product of Sporting de Gijón's famed youth system, ''Mareo'', Miñambres was born in Astorga, Province of León, and made his debut with the first team during 1987–88, being an undisputed starter the following season when he scored a career-best nine goals in La Liga. For the 1989–90 campaign, Miñambres signed with CD Tenerife, going on to be active part of the club's top-flight consolidation and subsequent UEFA Cup participations. As the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

side were relegated in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, he retired from football at the age of 34 and went into management. Miñambres started coaching former team Tenerife (being one of four managers during 1999–2000 in the

), then continued with

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football team in Alicante, in the autonomous community of Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3 and plays its hom ...

, UD Salamanca,

Alicante CF Alicante Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1918, it played its home matches at ''Estadio Alicante CF'', with a 4,000-seat capacity. History ''Alicante Club de Fútbol'', under t ...

and

UE Lleida Unió Esportiva Lleida was a Spanish football team based in Lleida, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. It was founded as ''Lérida Balompié-AEM'' on 30 October 1939, and became ''Unión Deportiva Lérida'' in 1947, after a merger with ''C ...

. In the 2007–08 season, he became Rayo Vallecano's director of football. On 15 February 2010, with the Madrid club now in the second tier but immerse in a sporting crisis, Miñambres replaced the dismissed Pepe Mel as coach. In June, after helping them to retain their league status, he returned to the office. After leaving the

Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas (originally Nuevo Estadio de Vallecas and previously Estadio Teresa Rivero) is a football stadium in the Madrid district of Puente de Vallecas, Spain. It currently hosts football matches and is the home of Primera ...

in 2016, Miñambres was employed in the same capacity at

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, 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), ...

. On 11 February 2022, he moved to

also as a director of football, but was also in charge of the team for two matches in October after relieving

Mehdi Nafti Mehdi Ben Sadok Nafti ( ar, مهدي النفطي; born 28 November 1978) is a Tunisian football manager and former player. Nafti played as a defensive midfielder for Toulouse, Racing Santander, Birmingham City, Aris, Valladolid, Murcia and C� ...

of his duties.

International career

Over four and a half years, Miñambres won six caps for Spain and scored two goals. His debut came on 13 December 1989 in a 2–1

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

victory over

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and he netted the last in the 59th minute of a match played in

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...

. Miñambres was subsequently part of Spain's squad at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

, appearing against South Korea and

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Minambres, Felipe 1965 births Living people People from Astorga, Spain Spanish footballers Footballers from Castile and León Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Atlético Astorga FC players Zamora CF footballers Sporting de Gijón B players Sporting de Gijón players CD Tenerife players Spain international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers CD Tenerife managers Hércules CF managers UD Salamanca managers Alicante CF managers UE Lleida managers Rayo Vallecano managers Levante UD managers RC Celta de Vigo non-playing staff