Premier League: Lopetegui celebrates 400 appearances as coach: “It’s such an honor to have come this far”

Julen Lopetegui will celebrate his 400th appearance as a professional manager on Saturday against Aston Villa. With 20 years of experience off the bench, the coach from Gipuzkoa has reached this milestone with 56 ‘primaveras’, After leading teams such as Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid Castilla and Porto, different categories of Spain national team, Real Madrid and Seville in fact, to Wolverhampton.

In the run-up to this important match to be played against Unai Emery’s side, Lopetegui expressed his satisfaction with this achievement and declared: “It is such an honor to reach this mark in my coaching career. It has been many years of hard work and learning, But also a lot of passion and love for the sport.”

Lopetegui also expressed his gratitude to all the players, coaching staff, managers and fans who have been involved in his career in the different teams he has captained. “Without the support and commitment of each of them, this achievement would not have been possible,” he said.

Since his arrival at the end of last year, in a limited position for the “Wolves” group, Lopetegui has been trying to achieve the goal of getting out of relegation. “We haven’t achieved anything yet. I’m going to be very tough until the end,” he said. The Basque coach repeated it insistently for several weeks inside and outside the club.