Víctor Fernández knows well that football is all about passion and feeling. At 63 years old, the active coach with the most games coached in the history of the First Division could not contain his tears during his presentation as the new coach of Real Zaragoza, which forced him to leave the press room on two occasions.
A new adventure in the club of his loves – the fourth in his long career – that is going through low hours after eleven years of penance in the Second Division and a trail of 17 coaches. “I have fire, enthusiasm, love… I hope I have the energy,” said the Zaragoza coach, who had already directed his first training session a while before.
The coach arrives at a very delicate moment for the club. After a strong investment and a spectacular start to the season, the drop in play and results came. In November there was a change of coach (Julio Velázquez for Fran Escribá), but it was not enough of a shock. After adding only one of the last 15 points and being closer to relegation than to the top positions, the board has finally decided to resort to its last bullet with Fernández, who has already gotten them out of more than one trouble in the past.
“Coming as the third coach (of the season) means that things were not going well. We are in a state of alert, of maximum danger. I have asked the players to be responsible and mature. There is a quite dangerous threat,” he acknowledged once he regained his calm.
Fernández’s relationship with the banner of Aragonese football goes back a long way. In March 1991, he also took a Zaragoza team in low times, where he remained until 1996. Two consecutive Copa del Rey finals would come from him (he won the second, 1993-1994 season) and the ’95 Cup Winners’ Cup, with that Nayim’s legendary goal from midfield.
After occupying the bench between 2006 and 2008, he returned to the lion’s team in 2018, when he was entrusted with a mission similar to the current one: rescuing a team that had died in football and emotionally. He complied and, shortly after, he was close to promotion to First Division, but the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 cut his streak and ended the great disappointment of the defeat against Elche in the play offs. With the bad taste in his mouth of not returning the team to its highest category and feeling “exhausted” by everything that had happened in those months, he said goodbye to his third stage.
Although not even four years have passed, Fernández finds himself in a very different Zaragoza today than the one he left. Starting with the property (now in the hands of a group of businessmen headed by Jorge Más), and continuing with the sports management and the squad, where only a handful of players know him from his previous stage.
For now, Fernández denies the mantle of hero that everyone attributes to him. “I don’t come as a savior, but as one more,” he told the media. Even so, it is undeniable that his arrival has managed to excite and raise the spirits of a punished fans, but it remains to be seen if that is enough to beat Espanyol this weekend and straighten the course of the remainder of the season.