Jonatan Giráldez Costas (born 27 November 1991) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach who is soon (1 July 2024) to become the manager of

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

team Washington Spirit. Prior to joining the Spirit in 2024 he spent his entire career, including work in

sports analytics Sports analytics are a collection of relevant, historical, statistics that can provide a competitive advantage to a team or individual. Through the collection and analyzation of these data, sports analytics inform players, coaches and other staff in ...

, in

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

. Initially working in youth football, he joined

FC Barcelona Femení Futbol Club Barcelona Femení, commonly referred to as Barça Femení, is a Spanish professional women's association football, women's football team based in Barcelona, Catalonia. It's the women's football section of FC Barcelona and it compete ...

as an assistant coach in 2019; he was promoted to head coach in July 2021, leading Barcelona to a domestic treble in the 2021–22 season, a treble including the Champions League in the 2022–23 season, and a continental quadruple in the 2023–24 season. Taking 10 of the 12 available trophies in his time as head coach, Giráldez' Barcelona Femení was considered dynastic.

Early years

Jonatan Giráldez Costas was born on 27 November 1991, in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

, Galicia, Spain. Growing up, he played football with local clubs Sárdoma, Coruxo and Areosa between 1997 and 2012, but even when young decided he would be better coaching. Having studied sports science in Pontevedra, he moved to Barcelona in 2012 to study sports instruction. In his early years in Catalonia, he commentated on matches.

Career

Youth teams

Giráldez's first roles were in coaching and

for RCD Espanyol Cantera and the youth sections of the

Catalonia women's national football team The Catalonia women's football team is the official football team of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia. It is organised by the Catalan Football Federation. It is not affiliated with FIFA or UEFA and therefore it is only allowed to pla ...

. He then became the head coach of the under-12 Catalonia men's national football team, his first managerial role, and the assistant coach of the under-16 and under-18 Catalonia women's teams.

Barcelona Femení

In 2019, he joined the coaching staff of

Lluís Cortés Lluís Cortés (born 10 August 1986) is a Spanish football coach who is the current head coach of the Ukraine women's national team. He was formerly manager of Primera División club FC Barcelona Femení. His treble-winning 2020/21 season with ...

, following

Fran Sánchez Fran Sánchez (born 27 October 1977) is a Spanish Manager (association football), football manager. He managed FC Barcelona Femení. He took over the position in June 2017, replacing Xavi Llorens. His contract with the club was terminated in Janua ...

' dismissal. Spending three years as a technical assistant, Giráldez held an increasingly important role in training and game strategy; the team reached the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

finals, and won most domestic titles in this era. The 2020–21 season, in which they won the continental treble, is considered one of the best in history. At the end of this season, Cortés left the position as manager; though Cortés' departure was rather unusual due to the team's monumental and growing success, it was reported that there were fractured relationships between him and some of the players, with all parties finding it beneficial to make the change. Two days later, Giráldez was formally announced to be taking over, initially on a one-year contract. His first match in charge of the club, a pre-season friendly, saw Barcelona defeat

Elche Elche ( ca-valencia, Elx) is a city and municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2014 data, Elche has a population of 228,647 inhabitants,2021–22 season, Giráldez won the Best Coach award in the Marca Women's Sports Awards Gala. At the start of the 2022–23 season, Giráldez' contract was renewed until the end of the 2023–24 season, and on 5 March 2023, Barcelona played their 50th league match under Giráldez: in defeating Villarreal 5–0, the team also achieved their 50th consecutive league win under Giráldez, a perfect record for the manager. In June 2023, Giráldez coached the team to their second Champions League title in the 2023 UEFA Women's Champions League final. For the exceptional season, he received various awards and nominations, including winning the IFFHS Women's World's Best Club Coach award and placing third for both the

UEFA Women's Coach of the Year Award The UEFA Women's Coach of the Year Award is an association football award given to the manager coaching a women's football club in Europe that is considered the best in the previous season of both club and national team competition. The award, cr ...

and The Best FIFA Women's Coach Award. In December 2023, part way through the 2023–24 season, there were widespread rumours that Giráldez would leave the club upon the expiry of his contract on 30 June 2024; Giráldez confirmed later in the month that he was not renewing, adding that Barcelona's offer to give him a new contract had been very good and this was not a motivation. He did not reveal his new club, though said it was not in Europe because it was important to him that he would not have to play against Barcelona. Giráldez led Barcelona Femení to their first continental quadruple – of the league,

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, Supercopa and Champions League – in his final season with them, winning 10 trophies in his time as head coach of the team. ''The Guardian'' opined that "Fairytale endings rarely exist but sometimes in football, the script really does write itself", in reference to him leaving the club on a high. The newspaper also felt that Giráldez, through his time as assistant and then manager, had set up the team for continued success, praising that "

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have developed a desired combination of technical prowess and working out how to get the result over the line."

Washington Spirit

On 18 December 2023, in the break before the 2024 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) season, Giráldez announced that he would leave Barcelona at the end of their season, primarily because he "believed that a change could be very good for isfamily". There had been rumours that he was leaving Barcelona to join an NWSL team. Spanish sports media announced later in the day that Giráldez was set to join the NWSL club Washington Spirit; the club formally announced his signing on 9 January 2024, ahead of the

2024 NWSL Draft The 2024 NWSL Draft presented by Ally will be the twelfth annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select amateur players above the age of 18 playing in the United States who exhausted, lost, or renounced any remaini ...

Personal life

Giráldez is married and had a son in 2023.

Managerial record

Honours

Manager

FC Barcelona Femení

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

: 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2023–24 *

: 2021–22, 2023–24 *

, 2023–24 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

: 2021–22,

, 2023–24

Individual

Royal Galician Football Federation The Royal Galician Football Federation ( gl, Real Federación Galega de Fútbol, es, Real Federación Gallega de Fútbol; RFGF) is the governing body of the sport of Association football, football in Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. The RFGF org ...

Silver Medal: honoured 2023 * Marca Women's Sports Awards Best Coach: 2021–22, 2022–23 * IFFHS Women's World's Best Club Coach: 2023

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giraldez, Jonatan 1991 births Living people Spanish football managers FC Barcelona Femení managers Liga F managers Sportspeople from Vigo Women's association football managers RCD Espanyol non-playing staff