Francisco Javier García Pimienta (born 3 August 1974), known as García Pimienta, 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 ...

manager and former player. A

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, García Pimienta made his senior debut with

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 ...

's C-team, and later represented the reserves before making his first team debut in 1997. He featured in a further four

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 ...

matches with

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

, and subsequently went on to resume his career in the lower leagues. As a coach, he worked for Barça for twenty years, being named in charge of the B-side in 2018 but being dismissed in 2021.

Club career

Born in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, García Pimienta joined

's youth setup in 1986. After making his senior debut for the C-side in

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

, he first played as a professional with the reserves in

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 ...

. García Pimienta made his first team – and

– debut on 26 May 1996, starting in a 2–2 away draw against

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 ...

. On 14 July, he was loaned to fellow top tier side

for one year, but appeared rarely after suffering a serious injury which kept him out for the majority of the campaign. Upon returning, García Pimienta was assigned back to the B-team, achieving promotion from

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: 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 ...

. After a four-month loan at fellow league team

Figueres Figueres (; ) is the capital city of Alt Empordà county, in the Girona region, Catalonia, Spain. The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Dalí Theatre and Museum, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which att ...

, he moved to L'Hospitalet in a permanent basis. García Pimienta retired in 2004 at the age of 29, after playing for

Sant Andreu Sant Andreu () is one of the ten districts of Barcelona since its redistricting in 1984. It was named after the former municipality of Sant Andreu de Palomar, which was the largest in the area and now makes up the bulk of the neighbourhood beari ...

Managerial career

In 2001, while still a player, García Pimienta was the assistant of Álex García at Barcelona's ''Cadete'' squad. He left the club in 2003, only returning three years later now as manager of the very same category. After progressing through the youth setup, García Pimienta was named

Gerard López Gerard López Segú (; born 12 March 1979), usually known as just Gerard, is a Spanish former professional footballer, currently manager of the Catalonia national team. An all-around midfielder, he was known for precision passes and ball contro ...

's assistant at the B-side on 21 July 2015. On 25 October 2017, he replaced Gabri at the helm of the ''Juvenil A'' squad. After winning the

2017–18 UEFA Youth League The 2017–18 UEFA Youth League was the fifth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. Barcelona won their second Youth League title following a win over Chelsea in the final. Red Bull Salz ...

, García Pimienta was appointed at the helm of the reserves on 25 April 2018, after the sacking of Gerard. His debut in senior coaching was three days later, a 1–0 loss at

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

in the second division as his team ended the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

relegated. In three full seasons in charge of Barcelona B in the third tier, García Pimienta made the playoffs in the latter two campaigns, losing the 2020 final 2–1 to neighbours

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city and municipality in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental, where it is one of the two capitals, the other being Terrassa. It is located on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona, a ...

, and the

semi-final A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

on penalties to

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

a year later. On 11 June 2021, following the latter defeat, he was dismissed after the club terminated his contract. On 24 January 2022, García Pimienta was named manager of

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

in the second division, replacing

Pepe Mel José "Pepe" Mel Pérez (born 28 February 1963) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager. He amassed Segunda División totals of 215 matches and 78 goals over eight seasons, for Real Madrid Cast ...

at a team in eighth place and three points off the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. Having fallen to 14th after a poor start, he led them to an eleven-game unbeaten run with nine victories to reach fourth place and a post-season berth, where they were eliminated in the semi-finals by

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

rivals

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

. By the anniversary of his appointment, he had taken 63% of the available points from 42 league games. In the 2022/23 season, he led Las Palmas to promotion to the first division. On 2 June 2024, García Pimienta was named the new head coach of fellow La Liga club

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

, signing on a two-year deal. The following 13 April, he was dismissed.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

;Barcelona *

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

: 2017–18

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Pimienta, Francisco Javier 1974 births Living people Footballers from Barcelona Spanish men's footballers Men's association football wingers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players CF Extremadura footballers UE Figueres footballers CE L'Hospitalet players UE Sant Andreu footballers Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers La Liga managers FC Barcelona non-playing staff FC Barcelona Atlètic managers UD Las Palmas managers Sevilla FC managers