José Luis Mendilibar Etxebarria (born 14 March 1961) is a Spanish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

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 ...

club

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, ...

. He played no higher than

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 ...

, making 290 appearances and scoring 34 goals mainly for

Sestao Sestao is a town and municipality of 27,296 inhabitants located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. It is in the left bank of the Estuary of Bilbao and part of Bilbao's metropolitan area. Se ...

. He also represented Logroñés in that league. Mendilibar managed for over 15 years 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 ...

for

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

, Levante,

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

, Alavés and

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 ...

, winning the second division with Valladolid in 2006–07, the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

with Sevilla and the Conference League in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

with Olympiacos.

Playing career

Mendilibar was born in

Zaldibar Zaldibar (in Basque language, Basque and officially, in ) is an elizate, town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, Spain. Zaldibar is part of the ...

, Basque Country. He enjoyed an average career as a player, never appearing for a club in

and successively representing

Bilbao Athletic Athletic Club "B", officially Bilbao Athletic, is the reserve team of Athletic Club, a football club based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country in Spain. The team currently compete in the . Founded in 1964, the team holds ho ...

, Logroñés,

and

Lemona Lemoa () is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. Sports * SD Lemona (Football) in ''Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was ...

. Mendilibar was a key player in midfield for Sestao during the side's

years – playing eight seasons with them in that level and appearing in nearly 300 competitive matches – narrowly missing out on promotion in 1986–87 under

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 ...

Coaching career

Early years

After retiring in 1994, Mendilibar worked in the youth categories of

before having spells as head coach at Aurrerá de Vitoria,

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

and

. His success with the latter in the second division, on a very limited budget, translated into a narrow miss on promotion in 2005.

Athletic Bilbao

Mendilibar returned to Athletic in June 2005. His debut was the first European match of his career, a 1–0 away loss against Romania's

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

on 2 July in the

second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

of the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

(aggregate draw, elimination on penalties). His first top-flight game was a 3–0 home win over

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

in the

Basque derby The Basque derby (in Basque language, Basque ''Euskal Derbia'', in Spanish language, Spanish ''derbi Vasco'') is the name of the association football, football local derby between Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao. It embodies the inter-city ri ...

on 27 August. Having not added any more victories in the ensuing nine games of the season, Mendilibar was its first manager to be sacked. He was replaced by

Javier Clemente Javier Clemente Lázaro (; born 12 March 1950) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Forced to retire from playing in his early 20s through injury, he embarked on a coaching career with his first managerial ...

on 31 October.

Valladolid

In June 2006, Mendilibar was appointed at

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

in the second division. His team won promotion as champions in his first season, earning a record 88 points and going on a 29-game unbeaten run to secure their place in the top flight with eight fixtures remaining. In the same campaign, they reached the quarter-finals of 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 ...

with aggregate victories over

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

and

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

from the league above. Mendilibar's team retained their league status from

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. On 1 February 2010, after a 1–1 home draw against

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 ...

left them one point above the relegation places, he was dismissed.

Osasuna

In February 2011, Mendilibar returned to work, replacing the fired

José Antonio Camacho José Antonio Camacho Alfaro (; born 8 June 1955) is a Spanish former football left-back and a former manager. He spent 15 professional years at Real Madrid, appearing in more than 500 official matches with the team and helping win 19 major ti ...

on a deal until June of the following year. His first game in charge was a 4–0 home defeat of Espanyol on 20 February, and the ''Rojillos'' stayed up on the final day of the campaign with a 1–0 win over Villarreal also at the

El Sadar Stadium Estadio El Sadar (; known as ''Estadio Reyno de Navarra'' from 2005 to 2011, ) is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. The stadium holds 23,516 people. It was built in 1967 and is the home of CA Osasuna, Osasuna ...

. Mendilibar added a further year to his contract in March 2012, and again in May of the following year. On 3 September 2013, he was relieved of his duties after three losses in as many matches to kickstart the new season.

Levante

On 29 May 2014, Mendilibar was appointed at Levante, signing a one-year contract with an option for a second season. On 20 October, after only one win in eight games, and no goals scored and 14 conceded from four home fixtures, he was dismissed.

Eibar

Mendilibar returned to Eibar on 30 June 2015, replacing Gaizka Garitano. In 2016–17, he led the team to a best-ever quarter-final finish in the domestic cup before an injury-stripped squad lost 5–2 on aggregate to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

; he and Asier Garitano of

Leganés Leganés () is a city in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Considered part of the Madrid metropolitan area, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 188,425, making it the region's fifth most popu ...

were joint recipients of the year's

Miguel Muñoz Trophy The Miguel Muñoz Trophy () is a association football, football award for team managers in Spanish football, established by Spanish newspaper Marca (newspaper), Marca in 2006, in memory of the legendary Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid manager Mi ...

for best manager. The following year they came ninth in the league, again a club record. In May 2021, shortly after the team's relegation, Mendilibar announced that he would not renew his contract.

Alavés

At the turn of the calendar year, Mendilibar returned to the top division at relegation-threatened neighbours Alavés. He was fired less than four months later, with the side in last place.

Sevilla

On 21 March 2023, Mendilibar replaced Jorge Sampaoli at the helm of

. In the first European games of his career since Athletic's Intertoto elimination by Cluj in 2005, his team beat

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

5–2 on aggregate in the

quarter-finals 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 ...

of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

; they eventually won the competition, defeating

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

4–1 on penalties following a 1–1 draw. On 8 October 2023, Mendilibar was dismissed after winning only two of eight league matches of the new season.

Olympiacos

Mendilibar signed as manager of

on 12 February 2024. He made his debut three days later, defeating

Ferencváros Ferencváros (, ) is the 9th district of Budapest (), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The developmen ...

1–0 in the play-off round of the

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual football competition organised since 2021 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the thir ...

. The following week, he managed a 4–1 away win against

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, 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 ...

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

in the

, taking the opposition from the top of the table. He guided the

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

-based team to the first UEFA competition semi-final in their history; there, he defeated

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

of compatriot

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa. He is widely regarded as o ...

6–2 on aggregate to qualify a Greek team to a continental final for the first time since Panathinaikos in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

. He eventually led the club to their first-ever European title by beating

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

1–0 in the decisive match. Mendilibar won his first domestic league in the 2024–25 campaign, achieving the feat with three games left after beating

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

1–0 at home. He claimed the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

on 17 May 2025, following a 2–0 victory over

OFI Crete OFI Football Club (, ''Heraklion Sportsmen Club 1925 FC''), commonly referred to as OFI, is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in Heraklion, on the island of Crete. It is part of the O.F.I. (sports club), OFI mul ...

in the final of the

Greek Football Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

Basconia *

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 ...

: 1997–98 Valladolid *

: 2006–07 Sevilla *

: 2022–23 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

runner-up:

Olympiacos *

: 2024–25 *

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

: 2023–24 Individual * La Liga Manager of the Season: 2016–17 * La Liga Manager of the Month: February 2017 *

: 2016–17 *Gazzetta Awards Manager of the Year in Greece: 2024

References

External links

* * *
Athletic Bilbao manager profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendilibar, Jose Luis 1961 births Living people People from Durangaldea 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Biscay Men's association football midfielders Segunda División players Segunda División B players Athletic Bilbao B footballers CD Logroñés footballers Sestao Sport Club footballers SD Lemona footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers Tercera División managers CD Basconia managers Athletic Bilbao B managers SD Eibar managers Athletic Bilbao managers Real Valladolid managers CA Osasuna managers Levante UD managers Deportivo Alavés managers Sevilla FC managers Super League Greece managers Olympiacos F.C. managers UEFA Europa League–winning managers UEFA Conference League–winning managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece