Miguel Ángel Ramírez Medina (born 23 October 1984) 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 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 ...

Career

Early career

Born in

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 ...

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 ...

, Ramírez joined

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

' youth categories in 2003, from AD Claret. In 2011 he moved to Greece, initially to work at AEK FC's youth setup, but subsequently worked at

Panathinaikos FC Panathinaikos Football Club ( ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', ), is a Greek professional Association football, footbal ...

and

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, ...

due to the economic crisis. In 2012, after a year back at Las Palmas, Ramírez spent a few months working as a scout for

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

before moving to Qatar, joining the

Aspire Academy Aspire Academy () is a sports academy based in the Aspire Zone in Qatar, founded in 2004 with the goal to scout and help develop Qatari athletes, whilst also providing them with secondary school education. History Aspire Academy was establis ...

. In 2018, after being also in charge of

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

's under-14 football team and being assistant of compatriot

Félix Sánchez Bas Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

in the under-19s, he moved to Ecuador and was appointed manager of CSD Independiente del Valle's under-18 squad.

Independiente del Valle

On 7 May 2019, after compatriot Ismael Rescalvo was appointed in charge of

CS Emelec Club Sport Emelec is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil that is best known for their professional association football, football team. The football team plays in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of professional football in th ...

, Ramírez was appointed manager of the first team. He led the club to the title of the

2019 Copa Sudamericana The 2019 Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana was the 18th edition of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana (also referred to as the ''Copa Sudamericana'', or ), South America's secondary club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Ecuadorian club Independiente d ...

, the first of his career and the first international accolade of the club's history. On 19 December 2020, Ramírez confirmed his departure from Del Valle after nearly two years as a manager.

Internacional

On 2 March 2021, Ramírez was announced as manager of Brazilian Série A side Internacional on a two-year contract. On 11 June, being knocked out of the

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

by Série B side Vitória, he was sacked.

Charlotte FC

On 7 July 2021, Ramírez was announced as the new head coach of American club

Charlotte FC Charlotte Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team is owned by David Tepper, who was awarded the e ...

for the club's first season in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. After 14 league matches in charge, Ramirez was sacked on 31 May 2022. This came even though Charlotte FC was tied for eighth place in the Eastern Conference at the time, just short of playoff position. According to team captain

Christian Fuchs Christian Fuchs (; born 7 April 1986) is an Austrian former professional association football, footballer who played as a left back. He was a part of Leicester City F.C., Leicester City's 2015–16 Premier League campaign, where they won. He be ...

, there were a number of "fractures" between the players and Ramírez. Fuchs told

WBTV WBTV (channel 3) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Media. The station's studios are located off Morehead Street, just west of Uptown Charlotte, and its transmitter is ...

that when he tried to address problems with Ramírez, all too often "the door was shut and that didn't feel good." Fuchs added that Ramírez almost never did post-match analyses with the players, despite their youth.

Sporting Gijón

On 17 January 2023, Ramírez returned to his home country and was appointed in charge 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 ...

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 ...

. He left the club on 15 June of the following year, after being knocked out by

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

in the semifinals of the

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Al-Wakrah

On 27 June 2024, Ramírez moved to

Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League (; abbreviated as QSL), known as Ooredoo Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation wi ...

side

Al-Wakrah SC Al-Wakrah Sport Club () is a Qatari multi sports club, multi-sports club based in the city of Al Wakrah. Their professional association football, football team competes in the Qatar Stars League. They play their home games at the Al Janoub ...

, signing a one-year contract with an option for extension.

Zaragoza

On 27 December 2024, Ramírez was announced as manager of

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 ...

in the second division. He was sacked the following 16 March, after a 4–1 loss to

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

Independiente del Valle *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramirez, Miguel Angel 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Las Palmas Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Sporting de Gijón managers Real Zaragoza managers Independiente del Valle managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A managers Sport Club Internacional managers Major League Soccer head coaches Charlotte FC head coaches Qatar Stars League managers Al-Wakrah SC managers Spanish expatriate football managers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Ecuador Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate football managers in Greece Expatriate football managers in Qatar Expatriate football managers in Ecuador Expatriate football managers in Brazil Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States