Miguel Ángel Sola Elizalde (born 29 September 1957) 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 ...

and former player 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 ...

. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 316 matches and 42 goals over 12 seasons, in representation of

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 ...

and

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 ...

. In 1997, Sola started working as a coach.

Playing career

Born in

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

, Sola joined

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

in 1975, spending his first seasons as a senior with

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 ...

and on loan, the latter including a five-month spell with

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

neighbours

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 ...

. In 1980, he returned as a full member of the main squad, going on to be an important unit during five years and totalling 57

games (nine goals) as the team won back-to-back national championships. Sola was an unused substitute in the 1984 Copa del Rey final, which Athletic won by beating

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

1–0. An on-field brawl involving players from both teams ensued at the conclusion of the match; during the melee, the tracksuited Sola was knocked to the turf by

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

, who then followed up by launching a jumping scissor knee at his jaw, rendering him unconscious. After leaving the San Mamés Stadium with official totals of 177 matches and 24 goals, Sola moved to his hometown with

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

, appearing and scoring regularly for them in six of his seven seasons. In 1990–91, already aged 33, he made 26 appearances as the club finished in a best-ever fourth position, 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 ...

. He retired from the game at the end of the following campaign.

Coaching career

In 1997, with Osasuna 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 ...

, Sola managed the team for eight matches, collecting five losses and only one win as they barely avoided relegation. In the following years, always in the lower leagues, he coached

Peña Sport FC Peña Sport Fútbol Club is a Spanish football team based in Tafalla, in the autonomous community of Navarre. Founded in 1925 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Campo de San Francisco'', with a capacity of 4,000 seats. History Peña Sport ...

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club based in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in th ...

and

CD Mirandés Club Deportivo Mirandés is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Miranda de Ebro, Province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 3 May 1927, the club competes in the Segunda División ...

. On 24 March 2010, Sola returned to his native region and signed with

CD Izarra Club Deportivo Izarra is a Spanish football team, based in Estella-Lizarra, in the autonomous community of Navarre. Founded in 1924 it plays in , holding home matches at '' Estadio Merkatondoa'', with a capacity of 3,500 seats. History In the 1 ...

, aiming to help the club avoid relegation 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 ...

, which eventually did not happen. The next season, in the same tier, he was again in charge of Real Unión after replacing the fired

Álvaro Cervera Álvaro Cervera Díaz (born 20 September 1965) is a Spanish football coach and former player who is the manager of CD Tenerife. A winger, he played 261 matches in La Liga over 12 seasons for Racing de Santander (in two spells), Mallorca and V ...

. Sola was appointed at

CD Calahorra Club Deportivo Calahorra is a Spanish football team based in Calahorra, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1946 it plays in , holding home games at the '' Estadio Municipal La Planilla'', with a capacity of 5,000 spectators. H ...

of the

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 ...

in June 2017. He won promotion at the end of his first season as champions, but was dismissed on 17 February 2020 due to poor results.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Athletic Bilbao *

: 1982–83, 1983–84 *

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 ...

: 1983–84 *

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 ...

: 1984

Manager

Mirandés *

: 2006–07, 2007–08

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sola, Miguel 1957 births Living people 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Pamplona Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Athletic Bilbao B footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Deportivo Alavés players CA Osasuna players Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Segunda División B managers Tercera División managers Tercera Federación managers CA Osasuna managers Real Unión managers SD Huesca managers CD Mirandés managers CD Izarra managers CD Calahorra managers