Josep Gombau Balague (born 5 June 1976) is a Spanish professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

who is the current head coach of

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

club

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

. He is a former

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

youth team coach and has held multiple positions at the club's

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

Career

Born in

Amposta Amposta () is the capital of the '' comarca'' of Montsià, in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, 190 km south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean Coast. It is located at 8 metres above sea level, on the Ebre river, not far from its ...

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tarr ...

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 nort ...

, Gombau was a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, but switched to coaching at the age of 16. After coaching youth teams in CF Amposta and

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league s ...

, he was signed by

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. Found ...

in 2003 as a youth academy coach. In 2008, he became the technical director of FCB Escola, a Barcelona youth

football academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

opened at the Raffles International School in

Jumeirah Jumeirah ( ar, جُمَيْرَا, Jumayrā Emirati pronunciation: ) is a coastal residential area of Dubai, United Arab Emirates mainly comprising low rise private dwellings and hotel developments. It has both expensive and large detached ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

Kitchee

Gombau moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

to join

Kitchee Kitchee Sports Club (; ; ) is a Hong Kong professional football club based in Kowloon. It was founded in 1931 and currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. The club has won championships in Hong Kong 11 times, including 6 Hong Kong ...

as the club's head coach in 2009. Under Gombau, Kitchee won two league titles, two FA Cups, and one League Cup. Before the

2012 AFC Cup The 2012 AFC Cup was the ninth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. Al-Kuwait from Kuwait won their second AFC Cup title in four years, ...

away match to

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945, the club have won the national league c ...

, Kitchee captain Chu Siu Kei applauded the contribution of Gombau to the team, saying: "The coach understands that the players might be smaller than those in the other teams, but using the ball more on the ground gives us an advantage over our opponents. We have more control of the game now".

Adelaide United

On 30 April 2013, it was announced that Gombau would leave Kitchee to coach

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

in the A-League. He signed a two-season deal, arriving at the club in July 2013. His first two signings were compatriots and Barcelona youth products

Sergio Cirio Sergio Cirio Olivares (; born 9 March 1985) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a striker or left winger, currently manager of UD Ibiza B. Club career Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Cirio had a six-year youth spell at FC Barcelona's ...

and

Isaías Sánchez Isaías Sánchez Cortés (; born 9 February 1987), known simply as Isaías, is a professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Australian club Adelaide United. He spent most of his career in Australia with Adelaide United after ...

. Gombau also brought his long-time assistant coach Pau Marti to work alongside existing assistant coach

Michael Valkanis Mihalis "Michael" Valkanis (Greek: Μιχάλης "Μάικελ" Βαλκάνης; born 23 August 1974) is a Greek Australian former football (soccer) player and was previously a manager of Melbourne City FC. Club career Valkanis rose through ...

. Gombau stated that he wants to implement a possession-based football style at Adelaide. Gombau actively exercised his ambition to develop South Australian grassroots football by hosting free seminars for local coaches. Gombau's United won the inaugural

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Austral ...

by defeating Perth Glory 1–0. Gombau left the club in July 2015 to take up a youth coaching role in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Australia U-23

Known as a developer of talent, on 28 June 2016, Gombau was appointed as head coach of Australia U-23 in place of

Aurelio Vidmar Aurelio Vidmar ( ; born 3 February 1967) is an Australian association football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Thai League 1 club Bangkok United. He is a former captain of the Australia national team and former coach ...

, under whom the team failed to qualify for the Olympics.

Western Sydney Wanderers

On 1 November 2017, Gombau was assigned as head coach of

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

following the departure of

Tony Popovic Tony Popovic (born 4 July 1973) is an Australian association football manager and former player. He is the current manager of A-League club Melbourne Victory. As a player Popovic's usual position was centre-back. Starting in 1989 at Sydney Unit ...

at the beginning of the season and

Hayden Foxe Hayden Vernon Foxe (born 23 June 1977) is an Australian former professional soccer player who works as assistant coach with Western United. He played football as a centre-back at the top level in Germany, Japan, Belgium, England and Australia ...

acting as interim coach in the first four rounds. After just six months in charge, 19 April 2018, the club announced they had terminated Gombau's contract after failing to qualify for the 2017/18 A-League Finals Series.

Delhi Dynamos / Odisha FC

On 2 August 2018, Gombau was appointed as head coach of the

club

Delhi Dynamos Odisha Football Club () is an Indian professional football club based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Prior to the inaugural Indian Super League season, the club was founded ...

following the departure of

Miguel Ángel Portugal Miguel Angel Portugal Vicario (born 28 November 1955) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder, and is the current manager of Bolivian club Guabirá. He totalled 66 games and four goals in La Liga for four clubs including R ...

. Under Gombau, the team did not qualify for the playoffs and placed eighth on the points table, but the team's performance improved. Ahead of the

2019–20 Indian Super League season The 2019–20 Indian Super League season was the sixth season of the Indian Super League, one of the top Indian professional football leagues. The regular season began on 20 October 2019 and concluded on 14 March 2020. Hyderabad replaced the d ...

, the club changed its base from

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

and rebranded as

Odisha FC Odisha Football Club () is an Indian professional football club based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Prior to the inaugural Indian Super League season, the club was founded ...

. He extended his contract with the club and they finished sixth in the 2019–20 season table, closely missing the playoffs spot. On 18 March 2020, Gombau and the club amicably parted ways due to personal reasons. On 6 May 2021, he was announced as a member of the club's technical committee along with

David Villa David Villa Sánchez (; born 3 December 1981) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a striker. Villa is regarded by pundits as one of the best forwards of his generation, and one of the best Spanish strikers of all time. ...

and Victor Oñate.

Queensboro FC

In July 2020, Gombau was announced as the first-ever head coach and sporting director for

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

club

Queensboro FC Queensboro FC is an upcoming American professional Association football, soccer team based in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was funded and founded on November of 2019. Queensboro FC will make its debut as an expansion team in the USL ...

. He left his positions at the club in June 2022, before their scheduled USL Championship debut in 2023.

Return to Odisha

On 8 June 2022, Gombau rejoined Odisha FC as the head coach on a two-year deal.

Personal life

Gombau and his wife Romina have two daughters, Bruna and Maria.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Kitchee SC *

Hong Kong First Division League The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2011–12 *

Hong Kong FA Cup Hong Kong FA Cup () is a knockout cup competition in Hong Kong football, run by and named after The Hong Kong Football Association. The first edition of the competition was held in 1975, before then the cup was known as the Golden Jubilee Cup. ...

: 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Hong Kong League Cup Hong Kong Football Association League Cup () is an annual football competition contested by clubs in the top-tier Hong Kong domestic football league (currently Hong Kong Premier League). The cup was relaunched for the 2014–15 season after being ...

: 2011–12 Adelaide United *

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 ...

Individual *

Best coach:

, 2011–12

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gombau, Josep 1976 births Kitchee SC Living people Spanish football managers A-League Men managers Kitchee SC managers Adelaide United FC managers Western Sydney Wanderers FC managers FC Barcelona non-playing staff People from Montsià Sportspeople from the Province of Tarragona Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate soccer managers in Australia Spanish expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate football managers in India Expatriate football managers in Hong Kong Spanish expatriate football managers Indian Super League head coaches Odisha FC head coaches RCD Espanyol non-playing staff