Sevilla made official this Monday the hiring of Quique Sánchez Flores as coach of the Seville team. The Spanish coach signs for this season and the next with the Andalusian team. This Monday he will lead his first session and will later be introduced.
The Madrid coach, who turns 59 in February, is the fifth coach to land on the Sánchez Pizjuán bench in the last 13 months, after Lopetegui, Sampaoli, Mendilibar and Diego Alonso. The latter was dismissed last Saturday as coach of Sevilla, after the Andalusian team’s defeat against Getafe at home (0-3).
“I want to thank the people who have tried to turn this around from day one for their work. We have to look for a reaction and it is always the dismissal of the coach,” Víctor Orta, Seville sports director, stated at a press conference after the setback.
Sánchez Flores has little room for maneuver to take charge of his new team, since the Sevillistas play this Tuesday the eighteenth round of the league against Granada, in Los Cármenes. The Spanish coach has been inactive since April, when he finished his third stage at Getafe, the club where he began his career as a coach in 2004.
In total, the 58-year-old coach has coached 117 matches with the blue team, but he has also been on the benches of Espanyol, Atlético de Madrid and Valencia on a national level. The European Super Cup and the Europa League are the Madrid native’s most notable titles in his professional career: both achieved at the helm of the Colchonero team.
On the international scene, Sánchez Flores has also coached English side Watford on two occasions, Benfica and Emirati teams such as Al Ahli, Al Ain and Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua, where he has won a League Cup in Portugal, another in the Emirates. Arabs and on three occasions the President’s Cup of the Middle Eastern country, respectively.
Sevilla has just added five points in the eight league games coached by Diego Alonso. Furthermore, the Andalusian team is currently seventeenth in the domestic championship with two wins, seven draws and seven losses on its record. The Seville team, who border the relegation zone tied on 13 points with Celta, have not won since September 1, when they defeated Almería 5-1.
Furthermore, the Andalusian team is out of Europe, after failing to obtain third place in Group B and thus not sealing its pass to the Europa League, after losing at home against Lens on the last day of the group stage of the Liga de Champions. However, they are still in the fight in the Copa del Rey, after eliminating Quintanar and Atlético Astorga in the K.O. competition.
