After an entire career running through the benches of Spain, Javier Aguirre is today, at 65, the age to retire, a new option to add the first Copa del Rey to his resume. He played for Zaragoza, Espanyol and Leganés. He tasted the elite, although without success, at Atlético de Madrid. And at Osasuna, in 2005, he was six minutes from the end of extra time, from winning a Cup that traveled to Betis’ showcases. Now, after 15 seasons competing in Spain, football has given him revenge on the Mallorca bench. “I have more declines than titles”, said the Mexican recently, who at least made a fortune in his country with three titles.
With or without victory, Aguirre’s teams have personality and it has also been noticeable with the Majorcans, rocky and with verticality as a flag. “The team is very excited. We didn’t intend to be in the final, that wasn’t the idea”, he indicated yesterday in the preview of the match in La Cartuja.
In a football flooded with clichés and technicalities, Aguirre is the last refuge of spontaneity, of the people’s vocabulary. “You already know me. I don’t make scripts. If a good speech comes out it will be natural. You can’t act. If you don’t speak with your heart you’re screwed”, he pointed out about how he will motivate his students before facing Athletic, “a team with a lot of speed that vaccinates you if you make a mistake”. The coach, “calm” before the challenge, will not only play against a team that will force his players to play “an almost perfect match”, but will also face his roots. “I grew up in a Basque house in Mexico. There were Athletic posters and we listened to the matches on the radio. We looked at the results in the newspaper. My brothers came one summer and stayed seven years in Gernika, my mother’s village. They came back being more than Athletic”, said the coach, who is called the Basque for this reason, remembering his childhood.
Aguirre is the visible face of a project that has improved in recent years, since the coach worked the miracle saving the islanders from relegation in the final nine league games of the 2021-2022 season. “Aguirre is very important, he has contributed a lot to the club’s growth”, explains the Balearic club’s sporting director, Pablo Ortells, to La Vanguardia. Not so long ago, Mallorca was in a borderline situation, in Segona B in 2017 and in bankruptcy. “We come from years of instability. The Cup is candy. The first is to stabilize us in Primera and this will allow us to make a leap. We are ambitious, but without losing perspective”, adds the sports manager, who arrived on the island in April 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. In 2016, the seed of the future was sown with the purchase of the club by a group of investors, including Steve Nash, NBA MVP in 2005 and 2006, and ex-tennis player Andy Kohlberg, who later became the largest shareholder and current president. After eight years of that bet, Mallorca has no financial debt and today could achieve the third title in its history.
