Marcelino García Toral (; born 14 August 1965), known simply as Marcelino, 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 who played as an

attacking midfielder 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. ...

. He is the current head coach of

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 ...

club

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 ( ...

. In a ten-year senior career, he amassed

totals of 74 matches and two goals, all at the service of

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

. He became a manager in 1997, working in the top division with Recreativo,

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 ...

(two spells),

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

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 ...

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

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 ...

, being named best coach in Spain for the 2006–07 and 2017–18 seasons and winning the 2018–19 Copa del Rey with Valencia and the 2020–21 Supercopa de España with Athletic. After a brief stint in charge of

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, he returned to Villarreal in November 2023.

Playing career

Born in

Villaviciosa, Asturias Villaviciosa (, ) is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Asturias, Spain. Geography Villaviciosa is situated on the central eastern coastline, and borders the Asturi ...

, Marcelino was irregularly used in his first four professional seasons, at

. He did appear in a career-best 33 matches in the 1986–87 campaign, as the club finished fourth in

. His top-flight debut was on 22 December 1985, in a 1–1 away draw against Celta. After two

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 ...

spells, with Racing Santander and Levante, both ended in relegation, Marcelino moved to the lower leagues with

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 retired in 1994 at only 28, due to injury.

Coaching career

Marcelino started coaching at 32 with lowly Lealtad, also in Asturias. In the early 2000s he worked in the

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 ...

, with Sporting's reserves. From 2003 to 2005, Marcelino was in charge of the first team, finishing fifth and tenth in the second division, then signed with

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in , holding home ...

in the same league, which he led to promotion in his first season and a comfortable mid-table position in the top tier in

the following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson (screenwriter), Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The The Following (season 1), first s ...

, which made him the recipient of his first Miguel Muñoz Trophy. Marcelino resigned at the end of the season and took over at former club Santander, leading the

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

ns to a best-ever sixth-place finish, with the subsequent

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. However, on 29 May 2008, he again moved teams, returning to division two and joining

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 ...

with the objective of a promotion, which was finally achieved; in the process of signing, he had rejected

, and became the country's best paid manager at

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

2.4 million per year following the departure of

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 ...

Bernd Schuster Bernd Schuster (born 22 December 1959) is a German former professional footballer of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides Barcelona (1980–1988) and Real Madrid (1988–1990). He played as a midf ...

. On 13 December 2009, following a string of poor results (the last a 1–2 home defeat to

), Marcelino was fired by Zaragoza, with the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

ese side nonetheless still above the relegation zone. In early February 2011 he returned to Racing Santander, replacing Miguel Ángel Portugal. Marcelino was appointed at

for 2011–12. On 6 February 2012, following seven games without a win – the last being a 1–2 home loss against

– and with the

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

ns ranking 11th, he was relieved of his duties. Marcelino signed with Villarreal on 14 January 2013, returning the team to the top flight at the end of the campaign and going on to subsequently achieve three top-six finishes, which included a fourth place and a semi-final run in 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 ...

in 2015–16. On 10 August 2016, a few days before the first official match of the season, Marcelino was sacked for differences with the board of directors, particularly over the removal of Mateo Musacchio from club captaincy. On 11 May of the following year, he was named at the helm of Valencia for the upcoming campaign after penning a two-year deal. Marcelino won 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 ...

in his second season at the Mestalla Stadium, defeating

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 ...

2–1 in the final held in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. On 11 September 2019, however, he was dismissed. On 4 January 2021, Marcelino was appointed as head coach of Athletic Bilbao on a contract until 30 June 2022. In his first three games in charge, he lost against Barcelona in the domestic league and defeated the same adversary and Real Madrid to win the

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 ...

. He was also on the bench for two Spanish Cup finals in two weeks ( the first having been postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

), losing both. On 24 May 2022, Marcelino announced he would be stepping down on 30 June. In June 2023, after one year of inactivity, he agreed to a deal at

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

club

. He resigned on 20 September, alleging personal reasons, seven matches into his tenure. Marcelino returned to Villarreal on 13 November 2023, signing a three-year contract; he was their third manager of the campaign after Quique Setién and Pacheta, with Miguel Ángel Tena also having acted as interim for one game. The following 7 March, on his return to the

Stade Vélodrome The Stade Vélodrome (), known for sponsorship reasons as the Orange Vélodrome since June 2016, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, and has ...

, his side lost 4–0 in the first leg of the Europa League last 16.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Spain U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner-up:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Manager

Lealtad *

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 Recreativo *

: 2005–06 Valencia *

: 2018–19 Athletic Bilbao *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

*Copa del Rey runner-up: 2019–20, 2020–21

Individual

* Miguel Muñoz Trophy: 2006–07, 2017–18 *Miguel Muñoz Trophy (Segunda División): 2008–09 * La Liga Manager of the Month: September 2013, September 2015, March 2024

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcelino Garcia Toral 1965 births Living people People from Villaviciosa, Asturias 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Asturias Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Sporting de Gijón B players Sporting de Gijón players Racing de Santander players Levante UD footballers Elche CF players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers Tercera División managers Sporting Atlético managers Sporting de Gijón managers Recreativo de Huelva managers Racing de Santander managers Real Zaragoza managers Sevilla FC managers Villarreal CF managers Valencia CF managers Athletic Bilbao managers Ligue 1 managers Olympique de Marseille managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in France Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France