Ernesto Valverde, the discreet coach | Soccer

The Athletic fans were euphoric on Thursday, after reaching the Cup final, but Ernesto Valverde appeared in the San Mamés press room as restrained as always. “I try to come bouncing and somersaulting, but it doesn’t work out. “I would love to,” he replied when asked about that contention. “Now I’m going to get out of here and try a double somersault, okay?” he added jokingly.

Valverde is always like that. He sticks his answers, sometimes sarcastically, to football, the noise doesn’t interest him at all. Neither in Bilbao, his ideal environment, “the club in which I have been happiest in every way”, nor when he managed Barcelona, its league rival (9:00 p.m., Movistar). He is, possibly, the most discreet coach of the football elite. He celebrated success with restraint. At the end of the game he hugged Jon Aspiazu, his second since training, and the nutritionist Toscana Viar. Then he approached the other members of the coaching staff with a “hey, kids!” and formed a pineapple with them.

After addressing the media he approached the locker room. He hugged Iribar, who was turning 81, and was greeted by the players chanting his name. He lowered his head, smiled and raised his arms. Someone yelled at him: “Tomorrow, free!”, and he replied: “Yes, Saturday and Sunday too”, but he only agreed to start Friday’s training an hour late. Then he went home with his wife and his daughter, who were waiting for him.

There, he probably started thinking about the game against Barcelona, which his team eliminated from the Cup in the quarterfinals; on how to avoid the relaxation that has led Athletic to lower its performance after important midweek matches. He has many interests apart from his job, but football is his main interest. The final against Mallorca, the team in which he retired as a footballer, is more than a month away, and his first concern is to establish his team in the European positions and try to climb one more step towards the Champions League. .

Ernesto Valverde is in his third season at Athletic, he has just turned the corner of 60 years old and has been a coach for two decades after hanging up his boots. In that time, few things have changed about the way he views football. Of course, he has evolved, he has acquired new knowledge, but since his first appearance on an elite bench, precisely in a match against Barcelona in which Athletic lost despite playing a good game, his style has been quite recognizable. , always looking to play neat football, with nuances depending on the squad he had to manage.

He is, of course, the star of an Athletic team that is beginning to surprise. A lover of high pressure, he has understood that the team he currently manages is capable, due to the youth of many of its players, of doing it almost perfectly, of overwhelming the rival and becoming one of the teams in Europe that most He steals balls in the opposite field and scores goals because of those steals. He is, as a character as a person indicates, someone very far from demagoguery and making gestures in front of the gallery. Therefore, when a young footballer makes his debut on his team, it is not because he is given an award or a medal for bringing kids out of the youth academy, but because they are prepared to do so.

The first to have the opportunity, with Valverde on the Athletic bench, was Andoni Iraola, the current Bournemouth coach. He made his debut on the pitch the same day as Ernesto on the bench. When a young man appears for the first time he has the guarantee that his coach knows what he is doing. This campaign there are several in that situation, who are offering notable performance.

Today he faces Barcelona, which was also his team as a player, under Johan Cruyff, and as a coach. When he was dismissed, he left without a complaint. Two years later he returned to Athletic, and in Bilbao he seems happy again. Although he doesn’t do somersaults.