Jordi Roura Solà (born 10 September 1967) is a Spanish former

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 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 ...

Playing career

Born in Llagostera,

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 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 ...

, Roura arrived at

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; en, "The Farmhouse"), is a term used for FC Barcelona's youth academy. The academy includes more than 300 young players. It has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success ...

in the summer of 1982, aged almost 15. He made his first senior appearance two years later (whilst still a junior), playing 90 minutes for the

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

in a 4–0 away win against

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in Primera Federación – Group 1 for the 2022–23 season. It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a cap ...

and going on to spend two full seasons with the side in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, being relegated in 1989. Roura made his

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's ...

debut on 11 September 1988 in a 3–0 victory at Elche CF, under

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a ...

, but a serious injury to his right knee in the

1989 European Super Cup The 1989 European Super Cup was the 14th European Super Cup, an annual football match contested by the winners of the previous season's European Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup competitions. The 1989 Super Cup was played on a home-and-away basis ...

against A.C. Milan severely hindered his growth as a footballer. He went on to appear in only nine additional league matches for the remainder of his spell at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

. Released by the ''Blaugrana'' in 1991, Roura resumed his career in the second level, being relegated with both Real Murcia and

UE Figueres Unió Esportiva Figueres is a Spanish football team based in Figueres, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1919 and refounded in 2007 it plays in the Primera Catalana league, holding home matches at ''Estadi Municipal de Vilateni ...

and continuing to be bothered by physical problems. He retired in June 1994 at only 26, after half a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

with lowly UE Sant Andreu.

Coaching career

Roura's first job as a coach was in Japan, being part of fellow former Barcelona player Carles Rexach's staff at Yokohama Flügels in the late 90s. Subsequently, he worked in directorial capacities with another club in his native region, Terrassa FC, remaining in that position until 2007. Roura spent the early part of the 2007–08 season at the helm of CE L'Hospitalet in the third tier, being fired in late December 2007 as his side eventually suffered relegation. In 2009, he was part of the Barcelona team of observers in

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...

’s technical staff; in the following three years, he was in charge of analysing the rivals. On 30 June 2012, after Guardiola's departure, Roura replaced his lifelong friend Tito Vilanova as Barcelona's assistant manager, as the latter was promoted to head coaching duties. On 19 December he took over on an interim basis, when it was learned the former had suffered a recurrence of parotid gland cancer that would need surgery the following day; according to the club, he would be in charge for approximately six weeks whilst Vilanova was in chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roura, Jordi 1967 births Living people People from Gironès Sportspeople from the Province of Girona Spanish footballers Footballers from Catalonia Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona players Real Murcia players UE Figueres footballers UE Sant Andreu footballers Catalonia international footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División B managers CE L'Hospitalet managers FC Barcelona managers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Japan