Gaizka Garitano Aguirre (born 9 July 1975) is a Spanish former professional

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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

. Over 11 seasons as a player, he amassed Segunda División totals of 315 matches and 37 goals, mainly with

Bilbao Athletic Athletic Club "B", commonly known as Bilbao Athletic, is the reserve team of Athletic Club, a football club based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country in Spain. The team are playing in the Primera Federación – Group 2. Fo ...

and

Eibar Eibar ( eu, Eibar, es, Éibar) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country of Spain. It is the head town of Debabarrena, one of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Gipuzkoa. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eusta ...

. In

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

, he represented Real Sociedad during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 campaigns. Garitano entered coaching in 2009 with Eibar, being put in charge of the first team in 2012. He won consecutive promotions in his first two years, and reached the top division with the club in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. In the competition, he also managed Deportivo and Athletic Bilbao.

Playing career

Garitano was born in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, Basque Country. Grown through the ranks of Athletic Bilbao, he would never make it past the reserves, his sole first-team appearance being as a late substitute in a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

win away to

UC Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

. He also served loans at

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 '' ...

and

. In the summer of 1999, Garitano joined Segunda División B team

CD Ourense Club Deportivo Ourense, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Ourense, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded in 1952 after the dissolution of old UD Orensana, it played in Segunda División B – Group 1, holding home games at ' ...

. He finally settled at Eibar in the Segunda División – his second spell – and, in the 2004–05 season, as captain, led the side to a fourth place in the league, with chances of a historic

promotion until the last matchday. Garitano made his first top-flight appearances with Real Sociedad at the age of 30, his debut coming on 27 August 2005 in a 3–0 away defeat in the

Basque derby The Basque derby (in Basque ''Euskal Derbia'', in Spanish ''derbi Vasco'') is the name of the football local derby between Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao. It embodies the inter-city rivalry between Bilbao and Donostia-San Sebastián, capita ...

. After three seasons in San Sebastián, during which the club was relegated in 2007, he joined neighbours

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded on 1 July 1920 as Sport Friends Club, it ...

, retiring in June 2009 at 34 after their relegation to the third division.

Coaching career

Eibar

Immediately after retiring, having appeared in more than 300 matches in Spain's second tier, Garitano moved into coaching, serving as assistant at also recently-relegated Eibar. After a stint in charge of the reserves he was appointed first-team manager for the 2012–13 campaign, which included the elimination of Athletic Bilbao – the previous year's finalists – from the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

, and ended with promotion. Garitano repeated the feat the following season, topping the table and leading Eibar to the club's first ever top-division promotion. In June 2014, he renewed his contract. 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 (they would later be reinstated at the expense of

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Elx Club de Futbol, S.A.D.) is a professional football based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, the club competes in La Liga, holding home matches at ''Es ...

). Subsequently, Garitano presented his resignation, stating he did not merit to continue.

Valladolid and Deportivo

Garitano signed with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club c ...

on 6 July 2015, replacing fired Rubi. On 21 October, as the side ranked dead last, he was dismissed. On 10 June 2016, Garitano took over for Víctor Sánchez as

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

manager. Eight months later, with the team inside the relegation zone, he was sacked.

Athletic Bilbao

In summer 2017, Garitano was appointed head coach of Bilbao Athletic, replacing

José Ángel Ziganda José Ángel 'Cuco' Ziganda Lakunza (born 1 October 1966) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a centre-forward. He is the current manager of SD Huesca. He played 381 La Liga matches over the course of 12 seasons (111 g ...

who had been promoted to manager of the first team. He remained in that position until 4 December 2018, when it became his turn to be handed the senior role after

Eduardo Berizzo Eduardo Berizzo Magnolo (; born 13 November 1969) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a central defender. He is the manager of Chile. During his 18-year professional career he played for six teams in four countries, mainly Newell' ...

, who had followed on from Ziganda's one-year stint, was also relieved of his duties after an even shorter spell. On 4 April 2019, Garitano agreed to an extension at the San Mamés Stadium to run until 30 June 2020. On 1 June of the following year, having led the side to their first Spanish Cup final since 2015, he further renewed his link. Garitano was fired on 3 January 2021, with the team in ninth.

Return to Eibar

On 7 June 2021, Garitano returned to Eibar on a two-year deal with the option of a third.

José Luis Mendilibar José Luis Mendilibar Etxebarria (born 14 March 1961) is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder, currently Manager (association football), manager of Sevilla FC. He played no higher than Segunda División, ...

had stepped down following the side's relegation to division two.

Personal life

During his playing spell with Eibar, Garitano studied to become a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

before beginning his sports coaching courses. He is the son of Angel Garitano (also known as 'Ondarru') who served for many years as assistant to Mané at managerial appointments including Alavés and Athletic Bilbao, and the nephew of former Athletic and

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

midfielder Ander Garitano; they are distantly related to

Juan Urquizu Juan José Urquizu Sustaeta (24 June 1901 – 22 November 1982) was a Spanish football player and manager. Career Born in Ondarroa (Biscay, Basque Country), Urquizu played as a defender for Osasuna, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Barakaldo ...

who also served Athletic as player and manager, while Gaizka's mother's family members include another man who performed both roles,

Koldo Aguirre Luis María "Koldo" Aguirre Vidaurrázaga (27 April 1939 – 3 July 2019) was a Spanish football midfielder and manager. He played for Athletic Bilbao for twelve years, appearing in 297 competitive matches (61 goals scored) and winning two Copa ...

. Garitano is not related to fellow Basque manager

Asier Garitano Asier Garitano Aguirrezábal (born 6 December 1969) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. During a 14-year senior career, he appeared in 134 matches in Segunda División over five seasons, totalling 23 goals f ...

, who also had playing spells with Bilbao Athletic and Eibar.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Eibar * Segunda División: 2013–14

References

External links

Real Valladolid profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garitano, Gaizka 1975 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Bilbao Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers UE Lleida players SD Eibar footballers CD Ourense footballers Real Sociedad footballers Deportivo Alavés players Basque Country international footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers SD Eibar managers Real Valladolid managers Deportivo de La Coruña managers Athletic Bilbao B managers Athletic Bilbao managers