La Liga: Former Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde returns for a third spell with Athletic Bilbao

Ernesto Valverde will return as a coach of La Liga club Athletic Bilbao in the upcoming season. This will be his first coaching stint after being sacked from Barcelona in January 2020, whom he led to two La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup. This will be Valverde’s third stint in charge of Bilbao manager. In his previous spells, the club qualified for European competitions five times in six seasons, with one of them being a Champions League qualification.

Valverde has also won the 2015 Spanish Super Cup with Bilbao, when his side defeated giants Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate. He has so far secured 140 wins as Bilbao manager and in 2015/16 the club had finished runners-up in Spain’s domestic competition, the Copa del Rey and reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

He has also played for the club for good six seasons ranging from 1990 to 1996, in which he scored 50 goals from 188 appearances.

In addition to Athletic Club and FC Barcelona, Valverde has coached RCD Espanyol – where he was runner-up in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup – Olympiacos FC – winning three league titles and two cup titles between two spells in Greece – Villarreal CF and Valencia CF.

The upcoming season of La Liga will kick-off on the weekend of August 13-14.

-with agency inputs