Miguel Ángel Sola Elizalde (born 29 September 1957) 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 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 ...

. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 316 matches and 42 goals over 12 seasons, in representation of

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

and

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 ...

. In 1997, Sola started working as a coach.

Playing career

Born in

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 ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, Sola joined

youth system 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 ...

in 1975, spending his first seasons as a senior with

Bilbao Athletic Athletic Club "B", commonly known as Bilbao Athletic, is the reserve team of Athletic Bilbao, Athletic Club, a association football, football club based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Count ...

and on loan, the latter including a five-month spell with

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

neighbours

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the ...

. In 1980, he returned as a full member of the main squad, going on to be an important unit during five years and totalling 57

games (nine goals) as the team won back-to-back national championships. After leaving Athletic with official totals of 175 matches and 24 goals, Sola moved to his hometown with

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 ...

, appearing and scoring regularly for them in six of his seven seasons. In 1990–91, already aged 33, he made 25 appearances as the club finished a best-ever fourth position, with the subsequent

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

to the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

. He retired from the game at the end of the following campaign.

Coaching career

In 1997, with Osasuna in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

, Sola managed the team during eight matches, collecting five losses and only one win as they barely avoided relegation. In the following years, always in the lower leagues, he coached

Peña Sport FC Peña Sport Fútbol Club is a Spanish football team based in Tafalla, in the autonomous community of Navarre. Founded in 1925 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 2, holding home matches at ''Campo de San Francisco'', with a capacity of ...

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RFEF ...

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded on 29 March 1960, SD Huesca plays in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in t ...

and

CD Mirandés Club Deportivo Mirandés is a Spanish football team based in Miranda de Ebro, Province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 3 May 1927, the club competes in the Segunda División, holding home matches at ''Esta ...

. On 24 March 2010, Sola returned to his native region and signed with

CD Izarra Club Deportivo Izarra is a Spanish football team based in Estella-Lizarra, in the autonomous community of Navarre. Founded in 1924 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 2, holding home matches at ''Estadio Merkatondoa'', with a capacity o ...

, aiming to help the club avoid relegation from

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 ...

, which eventually did not happen. The next season, in the same tier, he was again in charge of Real Unión after replacing the fired

Álvaro Cervera Álvaro Cervera Díaz (born 20 September 1965) is a Spanish football manager who manages Real Oviedo. He is a former player who played as a winger. He amassed La Liga totals of 261 matches and 17 goals over 12 seasons, and represented Racing ...

. Sola was appointed at

CD Calahorra Club Deportivo Calahorra is a Spanish football team based in Calahorra, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1946 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at the ''Estadio Municipal La Planilla'', with a ...

of the

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 ...

in June 2017. He won promotion at the end of his first season as champions, but was dismissed on 17 February 2020 due to poor results.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Athletic Bilbao *

: 1982–83, 1983–84 *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

: 1983–84 *

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 ...

: 1984

Manager

Mirandés *

: 2006–07, 2007–08

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sola, Miguel 1957 births Living people Footballers from Pamplona Spanish footballers Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Deportivo Alavés players CA Osasuna players Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers Tercera División managers CA Osasuna managers Real Unión managers SD Huesca managers CD Mirandés managers