Luis Blanco Garrido (born 31 May 1978) 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 ...

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 o ...

and former player who played mainly as a right winger. He is the current manager of RCD Espanyol B.

Playing career

Born in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona, Catalonia, Blanco was an

UDA Gramenet Unión Deportiva Atlético Gramenet Milán is a Spanish football team based in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1945 it currently plays in ''Segona Catalana – Group 4'', holding home games at '' Muni ...

youth graduate, and made his first team debut at the age of just 16 on 21 May 1995, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–1

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

home draw against Real Murcia. In the 1997–98 season, aged 19, he was already a regular starter for the side. In 1998, Blanco moved to RCD Espanyol and was initially assigned to the reserves also in the third division. He made his first team debut on 17 July 1999, playing the last 17 minutes of a 0–2 home loss against Montpellier HSC, for the year's

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

. In 2001, Blanco returned to Gramenet, but left the club in January 2003 after featuring rarely during the season, and joined Tercera División side

CF Badalona Club de Fútbol Badalona () is a Spanish football team based in Badalona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1903 it plays in Tercera Federación – Group 5, temporarily holding home games at Estadi Municipal de Badalona, with ...

. In May 2010, after one promotion to the third division in the 2003–04 campaign, he left. Blanco agreed to a deal with third division side UE Sant Andreu in July 2010, He featured regularly with the side before retiring in 2012, aged 34.

Managerial career

On 11 June 2013, Blanco was named Piti Belmonte's assistant at his former side Badalona. On 24 June 2014, he returned to another club he represented as a player, Espanyol, being appointed assistant of

Lluís Planagumà Lluís Planagumà Ramos (born 25 October 1980) is a Spanish football manager, currently in charge of Japanese club Vissel Kobe. Career Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Planagumà started his managerial career with RCD Espanyol's youth categori ...

at the B-team. In 2017, Blanco was named manager of Espanyol's ''Juvenil A'' side. He was in charge of the ''Juvenil B'' team during the 2018–19 campaign before subsequently returning to the ''Juvenil A'' in 2019, and then taking over the B's on 24 March 2021, after José Aurelio Gay was sacked. On 13 May 2022, Blanco was named interim manager of the first team, after

Vicente Moreno Vicente Moreno Peris (born 26 October 1974) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, currently manager of Saudi Professional League club Al Shabab. He spent most of his career with Xerez, appearing in 4 ...

was sacked. His first professional – and La Liga – match in charge of the ''Pericos'' occurred the following day, a 1–1 home draw against Valencia CF.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco, Luis 1978 births Living people People from Santa Coloma de Gramenet Footballers from the Province of Barcelona Men's association football wingers Segunda División B players Tercera División players UDA Gramenet footballers RCD Espanyol B footballers RCD Espanyol footballers CF Badalona players UE Sant Andreu footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División B managers Segunda Federación managers RCD Espanyol B managers RCD Espanyol managers Spanish men's footballers