Víctor Sánchez del Amo (born 23 February 1976) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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and former player who played as a right midfielder. He is the head coach of

Slovenian PrvaLiga The Slovenian PrvaLiga (, ), currently named Prva liga Telemach due to sponsorship reasons, also known by the abbreviation 1. SNL, is the top level of the Slovenian football league system. Contested by ten clubs, it operates on a system of prom ...

club Olimpija Ljubljana. His crossing ability was among the qualities that brought him international recognition with

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, and especially Deportivo. He started his career with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and went on to win a total of seven major titles between the two clubs; over 11 seasons in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

, where he also represented

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

, he amassed totals of 310 matches and 49 goals. After five years as an assistant, Sánchez began working as a manager in 2015.

Club career

Real Madrid

Sánchez was born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. Being a product of the famous

youth system, he made his first-team debut on 25 May 1996 in the season's last matchday, a 1–0 away win against

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 football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

. Almost never a starter during his spell in the capital, Sánchez did appear in 36

games in 1996–97 (25 starts, five goals) as the

Fabio Capello Fabio Capello (; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional association football, football manager (association football), manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, AS Roma, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus FC, Juventus. H ...

-led side won the national championship. He also played a supporting role in Madrid's conquest of the following campaign's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

Deportivo

For 1998–99, Sánchez had to leave his hometown club as he faced stiff competition, and his first stop was

where he scored 12 top-division goals to earn a move to

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

. In the 1999–2000 season, he missed just one league match as they won the league – their first – netting four times. It was as a creator rather than scorer, however, that Sánchez impressed in the 2001–02 edition of the Champions League, a season which saw the

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win the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

. He helped ''Depor'' to a third-place finish in 2002–03 with four goals in 30 games, adding a couple in the Champions League prior to the team's second group stage elimination. Sánchez enjoyed his best return in front of goal in 2003–04, scoring seven from 31 appearances, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

on 3 January 2004 against neighbours

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, 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), the club was fou ...

(5–0 victory), as Deportivo finished third behind

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

; he failed to find the net, though, in a Champions League campaign which concluded with a semi-final loss to

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

. In his last year, they would finish eighth in the league and the player was not offered a new contract, a decision helped by the fact he had recently been injured.

Later years

On 3 August 2006, Sánchez signed a two-year contract with

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

giants Panathinaikos for about €1.5 million per year. He appeared sparingly throughout a sole season and, in October 2007, returned to Spain, penning a one-year deal with

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

club

Elche Elche (, ; , , , ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2024's data, Elche has a population of 234,800 inhabitants,

; he had spent the previous weeks training on his own. At the end of the campaign, Sánchez renewed his link for a further year, only to back down immediately on his original decision, leaving in July 2008. He retired at the age of 32 due to several injury problems, with nearly 500 competitive matches to his credit.

International career

Sánchez made his debut with

in a friendly with

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on 16 August 2000 (4–1 away loss), and went on to receive eight

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in a four-year span. He had previously participated in the

1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1996–98), had 46 entrants. Before the quarter-finals stage, Romania national under-21 football team, Romania were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four ...

, in which

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emerged victorious 1–0 against

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Coaching career

On 22 December 2010, Sánchez was named

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

's assistant manager, replacing former Real Madrid teammate Juan Esnáider as sidekick of Míchel – another player with whom he shared teams at the club. On 9 April 2015 he returned to Deportivo, taking over from the sacked Víctor Fernández. Sánchez was dismissed after the team finished 15th in his only full season, winning just twice in his last 22 games, including an 0–8 home defeat to Barcelona. On 23 June 2016, he succeeded

Marco Silva Marco Alexandre Saraiva da Silva (; born 12 July 1977) is a Portuguese Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a right-back. He is the manager of club Fulham F.C., Fulham. He played fo ...

at the helm of

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

. Less than two months later, after being ousted from the Champions League by Hapoel Be'er Sheva, he was relieved of his duties. On 12 November 2016, Sánchez replaced the fired Gus Poyet at

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

. The following 9 May, he was himself shown the door. On 15 April 2019, after almost two years without a club, Sánchez took the place of the dismissed Juan Muñiz at

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

. In early January 2020, with the side still in the second tier, the board of directors decided to suspend him indefinitely after a sex video featuring him leaked to the

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; shortly after, he was fired. On 6 June 2023, having been unemployed for three years, Sánchez was named manager of second-division Cartagena. He was sacked three months later, after winning one of his seven matches in charge. Sánchez went abroad again in June 2024, being appointed by

side Olimpija Ljubljana on a one-year contract with the possibility of a one-year extension. At the end of his first season, he was crowned national champion for his first title as a manager.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Real Madrid *

: 1996–97 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

: 1997–98 Deportivo *La Liga: 1999–2000 *

: 2001–02 *Supercopa de España:

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

Manager

Olimpija Ljubljana *

: 2024–25

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez, Victor 1976 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Racing de Santander players Deportivo de La Coruña players Elche CF players Super League Greece players Panathinaikos F.C. players UEFA Champions League–winning players Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Deportivo de La Coruña managers Real Betis managers Málaga CF managers FC Cartagena managers Super League Greece managers Olympiacos F.C. managers Slovenian PrvaLiga managers NK Olimpija Ljubljana (2005) managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Greece Expatriate football managers in Slovenia Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Slovenia Getafe CF non-playing staff Sevilla FC non-playing staff