José Antonio Vicuña Ochandorena (born 20 November 1971), commonly known as Kibu Vicuña, 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 beg ...

. He is the current manager of the club

Diamond Harbour Diamond Harbour () is a town and a municipality of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River. It is the headquarters of the Diamond Harbour subdivision. Histor ...

Coaching career

Early career

After playing for the

University of Navarra , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...

while coaching the youth squads, Vicuña was named in charge of

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El Sa ...

's youth squads in 2002. He left the club in 2005 to take over

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

side CD River Ega, where he coached for two years. In 2007, after a call to

Jan Urban Jan Urban (; born 14 May 1962) is a Polish football manager and former player who played as a striker, who was most recently in charge of Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. His professional career was closely associated to Górnik Zabrze and Osas ...

to congratulate his appointment at

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning record 15 Ekstraklasa champions titles, a ...

, Vicuña was invited to become his assistant. He subsequently worked as Urban's assistant at

Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. () is a Polish professional football club based in Lubin. Founded in 1945 as ''OMTUR Lubin'', the club competes in the Ekstraklasa. History The football team was founded in 1945 as OMTUR Lubin by local members of the ''Yo ...

, Legia, Osasuna,

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional association football, football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation' ...

and

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław, Śląsk Wrocław () or simply Śląsk, is a Polish football club based in Wrocław that plays in Ekstraklasa, the highest level of the Polish fo ...

FK Trakai

Oleg Vasilenko was fired from Lithuanian club

FK Trakai Futbolo Klubas Riteriai, also known as FK Riteriai or as Riteriai, is a Lithuanian professional football club based in Vilnius. The team has been playing in the top level of Lithuanian football, the A Lyga, since 2014. Until 21 February 2019, t ...

in May 2018, and Vicuña appointed as the head coach of the club in June. He worked with the team in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

tournament, but left in October and went to

Wisła Płock Wisła Płock Spółka Akcyjna (''Wisła Płock S.A.''), commonly referred to as Wisła Płock (), is a Polish professional football club, based in Płock, Masovian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national foot ...

Wisła Płock

On 10 October 2018, Vicuña was appointed as head coach of Polish club

. He left the club on 3 April 2019 after managing the team in 19 games.

Mohun Bagan

In May 2019, Vicuña signed a one-year deal for

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

. He won the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

in his maiden season with Mohun Bagan. After the alignment of ATK and

, the new management chose ATK head coach Antonio López Habas as the manager of the new entity, and Kibu's contract was not extended.

Kerala Blasters

On 22 April 2020, Vicuña was appointed as

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Kerala Blasters Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established i ...

. After a disappointing season with only 3 wins from 18 games, the Blasters and Kibu Vicuna decided to part away on mutual consent. He left the club on 17 February 2021, with two more games remaining in the season.

ŁKS Łódź

On 21 June 2021, it was announced that Vicuña was appointed as head coach of the

I liga I liga ( pl, Pierwsza liga, ), currently named Fortuna I liga due to its sponsorship by Fortuna, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga vi ...

club

ŁKS Łódź ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in Łódź. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, athletics and in the past ice ...

for the

2021–22 I liga The 2021–22 I liga (also known as Fortuna I liga due to sponsorship reasons) is the 74th season of Sports league, the second tier domestic division in the Polish football league system since its establishment in 1949 and the 14th season of the P ...

season. On 7 March 2022, two games after the winter break, with the team sitting ninth in the table, Vicuña was relieved of his duties.

Mohammedan

In December 2022, during the midway of 2022–23 I-League season, Vicuña was roped in as new head coach of another Kolkata-based club Mohammedan Sporting in place of

Andrey Chernyshov Andrey Alekseyevich Chernyshov (Russian: Андрей Алексеевич Чернышов; born 7 January 1968) is a Russian football manager and former player. He has been appointed as the new manager of I-League club Mohammedan Sporting. ...

. He returned to I-League, after managing the newly formed

Calcutta Football League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by Indian Football Association (WB), under state football leagues in India. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is off ...

club

. He parted ways with the club on 21 February 2023.

Personal life

Born in

Zizurkil Zizurkil (Spanish, ''Cizúrquil'') is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain. References External links Official WebsiteInformation available in Spanish and Basque. ZIZURKIL in ...

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

to a business family which owns a steel factory in the town, Vicuña opted to work with football instead. His parents are from

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

, and his brothers are from

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

, city where he arrived at the age of nine. Vicuña's wife, Kasia Bielecka, is Polish. When asked in an interview about his relationship with current

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

coach

Julen Lopetegui Julen Lopetegui Agote (; born 28 August 1966) is a Spanish former professional footballer, currently manager of Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers. A goalkeeper, he played 149 La Liga matches over nine seasons, representing Real Madrid ...

, Vicuña said: "He is a bit senior to me and a good friend of my elder brother, Marcelino. Actually, his parents and my parents were friends. They used to travel together during vacations. When he was in charge of

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

, I went to Porto and watched his style of coaching from close for two weeks. When he was in charge of the Spanish national team, then also we used to talk about a lot of things almost regularly. After I came here (India), he wanted to know about the interest level about the game here".

Managerial statistics

Honours

Mohun Bagan *

: 2019–20

References

External links

Career summary by FootballdatabasePersonal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicuna, Kibu 1971 births Living people Spanish football managers Tercera División managers Mohun Bagan AC managers Wisła Płock managers FK Riteriai managers ŁKS Łódź managers I-League managers I liga managers Indian Super League managers Kerala Blasters FC managers Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) managers Spanish expatriate football managers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Lithuania Spanish expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate football managers in Lithuania Expatriate football managers in Poland Expatriate football managers in India