Víctor Fernández Braulio (born 28 November 1960) 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 ...

. He had three spells with his hometown team

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, winning the

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 ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

a year later. He also led

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

Celta Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues) ...

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

and

Deportivo La Coruña ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable), an aerial lift station in Ecatepec, Mexico * Deport ...

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 ...

, and won the Intercontinental Cup in a brief spell at

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Football career

Real Zaragoza

Fernández was born in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

. Late into the 1990–91 season, aged only 30, he was promoted to hometown

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

's first team, eventually leading it to the 17th league position and avoiding

relegation in the playoffs against

Real Murcia Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, playing ho ...

; at the time of his beginnings, he was the second youngest manager to ever coach in the league after

Xabier Azkargorta Francisco Xabier Azkargorta Uriarte (born 26 September 1953) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a forward, and is a manager. Football career Born in Azpeitia, Gipuzkoa, Azkargorta spent five years under contract to Athletic Bilbao af ...

. In the following years, Fernández helped Zaragoza consolidate in the top division, notably reconverting

Gustavo Poyet Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (; born 15 November 1967) is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer. He is currently the head coach of the Greece national football team. Poyet played as a midfielder and began his caree ...

from

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

and winning the

and the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

in the next season. He was relieved of his duties on 8 November 1996, meeting the same fate the following year with his next club,

Celta Vigo

In May 1998, Fernández was appointed to replace

Javier Irureta Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano (born 1 April 1948), Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired football attacking midfielder and manager. He had a distinguished playing career with Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, playing in 344 La Liga games ...

, Profiting from the recent

Bosman ruling ''Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman'' (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling) is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of association ...

, his team fielded many

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

players such as

Claude Makélélé Claude Makélélé Sinda (born 18 February 1973) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently a youth coach and technical mentor at Chelsea, having formerly been the head co ...

, as well as those from further afield such as the Israeli

Haim Revivo Haim Michael Revivo ( he, חיים מיכאל רביבו; born 22 February 1972) is a retired Israeli football player who played as a midfielder, and a businessman. Sports career Revivo is Jewish and was born to a traditional Mizrahi Jewish fami ...

and Russian midfield duo

Valeri Karpin Valery Georgiyevich Karpin (russian: Валерий Георгиевич Карпин; born 2 February 1969) is a football manager and former player who manages FC Rostov and the Russian national team. He is a former midfielder, primarily a ri ...

and

Aleksandr Mostovoi Aleksandr Vladimirovich Mostovoi (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Мостово́й ; born 22 August 1968) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Known as ''O Zar de ...

; the Galician team played highly attractive football and were known as ''EuroCelta'' for their performances in continental competitions. Fernández led Celta in 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 ...

in each of his four seasons, reaching the quarter-finals on all but one occasion; highlights included a 3–1 win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in November 1998, a 7–0 rout of Benfica a year later and a 4–0 victory against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

in March 2000. His team

won Won may refer to: *The Korean won from 1902–1910 *South Korean won, the currency of the Republic of Korea *North Korean won, the currency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea * Won (Korean surname) * Won (Korean given name) * Won Buddhis ...

the

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 the summer of 2000, with a 4–3 aggregate defeat of

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

. Domestically, he surprisingly lost the

2001 Copa del Rey Final The 2001 Copa del Rey Final took place on 30 June 2001 at the Estadio de La Cartuja, Sevilla. The match was contested by Celta de Vigo and Real Zaragoza, and it was refereed by José María García-Aranda. Real Zaragoza lifted the trophy for the f ...

3–1 to Zaragoza, who had barely avoided relegation.

Real Betis

Fernández was appointed at fellow top flight team

in May 2002, after the exit of

Juande Ramos Juan de la Cruz "Juande" Ramos Cano (born 25 September 1954) is a Spanish former footballer and manager. After playing and managing at an amateur level, Ramos led Rayo Vallecano to promotion to La Liga, followed by reaching the quarter-finals o ...

. He finished eighth and

ninth In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...

respectively in his two years, and his team were eliminated from the third round of the UEFA Cup by

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

in his first campaign.

Porto

In August 2004, Fernández moved abroad and joined Portuguese club

; the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

holders had dismissed

Luigi Delneri Luigi Delneri (born 23 August 1950), often incorrectly written as Del Neri, is an Italian football manager and a former player. After a playing career as a midfielder including for several Serie A clubs, he began managing in the lower leagues, a ...

before a single competitive game. He won on his debut on 20 August in the

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

, with new signing

Ricardo Quaresma Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo (; born 26 September 1983) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger. He began his career at Sporting CP and went on to play for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Porto (twice), Chelsea, Beşiktaş ...

scoring the only goal of a win against

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

Benfica; on 12 December he added the conquest of the last ever Intercontinental Cup with a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

victory over Colombia's

Once Caldas Once Caldas S.A., simply known as Once Caldas, is a professional Colombian football team based in Manizales, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Palogrande stadium. They were the surprise winners ...

. Domestically, Fernández's team gave up their

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

lead to Benfica on 20 November 2004 when they lost 1–0 at home to neighbours Boavista. Home form was a struggle with three wins from the first seven fixtures, including another single-goal defeat to

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

two weeks later. He was abruptly dismissed the following January following a 1–3 defeat to

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

, again at the

Estádio do Dragão The Estádio do Dragão (; English: Dragon Stadium) is an all-seater football stadium in Porto, Portugal, and the home ground of FC Porto since 2003. It has a seating capacity of 50,033, making it the third largest football stadium in Portugal ...

Returns to Zaragoza and Betis

Fernández returned to his beloved Zaragoza for the 2006–07 campaign, qualifying the side for the

in his first year but being sacked midway through his second, as the season eventually ended in relegation. In another return, Fernández joined Betis in late January 2010, replacing fired

Antonio Tapia Antonio Tapia Flores (born 13 November 1959) is a Spanish football manager. Career Born in Baena, Córdoba, Tapia had an unassuming career as a footballer, only representing Atlético Malagueño and amateurs UD Fuengirola. Still not in hi ...

. During his spell the ''Verdiblancos'' were the team in the league with the most points, but they missed out on promotion from

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 ...

after being beaten to promotion places through head-to-head against Hércules and Levante, despite beating the latter 4–0 on the final day.

Later years

On 9 January 2013, Fernández moved for his second experience abroad, signing a contract with Belgium's

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, a ...

. He was sacked on 30 September 2013, due to poor results. Fernández was appointed as the new manager of

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

on 10 July 2014, succeeding

Fernando Vázquez Fernando Vázquez Pena (born 24 October 1954) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a central midfielder, currently a manager. Managerial career Born in the village of Castrofeito, O Pino, Galicia, Vázquez was an English teacher in La ...

. He was relieved of his duties on 9 April of the following year, with the team eventually narrowly escaping relegation. In the summer of 2015, Fernández signed for

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

as youth system coordinator. He left the Santiago Bernabéu in 2017, and on 17 December 2018 he returned to Zaragoza for a third stint as manager replacing the dismissed

Lucas Alcaraz Luis Lucas Alcaraz González (born 21 June 1966) is a Spanish retired footballer, currently manager of UD Ibiza. In a managerial career of over two decades, he competed in ten La Liga seasons at the helm of Recreativo, Racing de Santander, Gra ...

. Fernández resigned on 18 August 2020, after losing the play-off semi-finals to

Elche Elche ( ca-valencia, Elx) is a city and municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2014 data, Elche has a population of 228,647 inhabitants,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 ...

: 1993–94 *

: 1994–95 Celta Vigo *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Porto *

* Intercontinental Cup:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Victor 1960 births Living people Sportspeople from Zaragoza Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Aragon Men's association football midfielders Tercera División players Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers Real Zaragoza managers CD Tenerife managers RC Celta de Vigo managers Real Betis managers Deportivo de La Coruña managers Primeira Liga managers FC Porto managers Belgian Pro League managers K.A.A. Gent managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Portugal Expatriate football managers in Belgium Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Real Madrid CF non-playing staff