Víctor Sánchez del Amo (born 23 February 1976) 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 ...

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and former player who played as a

right 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 ...

. His crossing ability was among the qualities which brought him international recognition with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, and especially Deportivo. He started his career with

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 ...

, 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 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 ...

, 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, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system ...

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

Club career

Real Madrid

Sánchez was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. 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 league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

. 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 football manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL 1907, Roma, Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which ...

-led side won the national championship, and would play a relative role in Madrid's conquest of the following campaign's

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 ...

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

. 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 3 January 2004

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 wic ...

at neighbours

RC Celta de 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), ...

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

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

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

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 ...

. 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 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

giants Panathinaikos FC 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, 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 ...

club Elche CF; 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

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with

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on 16 August 2000 (4–1 away loss), and went on to receive eight caps 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 were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four matches in total. The exclusion (for po ...

, in which

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emerged victorious 1–0 against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Coaching career

On 22 December 2010, Sánchez was named

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

's assistant manager, replacing former Real Madrid teammate Juan Esnáider as sidekick of Míchel – another player he shared teams at the club with. On 9 April 2015 he returned to Deportivo, taking over from the sacked

Víctor Fernández Víctor Fernández Braulio (born 28 November 1960) is a Spanish football manager. He had three spells with his hometown team Zaragoza, winning the Copa del Rey in 1994 and the Cup Winners' Cup a year later. He also led Tenerife, Celta, Betis ...

. Sánchez was dismissed after the team finished 15th in his only full season, winning only 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 former footballer who played as a right-back, currently manager of club Fulham. He played for a variety of Portuguese clubs, finishing his career with a six-year spell at ...

at the helm of

Olympiacos FC Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σ.Φ.Π. ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in Piraeus, Piraeus, Attica. Part of the major Sports ...

. Less than two months later, after being ousted from the Champions League by Hapoel Be'er Sheva FC, 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 () 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 ...

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

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

. In early January 2020, with the team 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 sacked.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1996–97 *

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 ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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

: 2001–02 *Supercopa de España:

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 ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

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 compe ...

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 frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez, Victor 1976 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Madrid 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 under-21 international footballers Spain international footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate 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 Super League Greece managers Olympiacos F.C. managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Greece