Jonatan Giraldéz addresses departure from Washington Spirit: ‘Football is unpredictable'
Washington Spirit head coach Jonatan Giraldéz on Friday began his first press conference since the news of his midseason departure to lead OL Lyonnes by admitting the situation was 'not ideal.'
As he gets set to coach his final three games in NWSL before moving to France, he encouraged fans and players 'keep working, keep supporting the team in the way that they were' last season when the Spirit made it to the NWSL Championship.
Advertisement
'I am part of the group. I am not the most important guy,' Giraldéz said. 'I came here with a plan, probably to stay longer, but… in soccer things change so quick.'
OL Lyonnes, like the Spirit, is one of three women's soccer clubs owned by Michele Kang under her expanding Kynisca Sports International organization. OL Lyonnes (formerly Olympique Lyonnais Féminin) is the most successful women's club in Europe, having won the UEFA Women's Champions League a record eight times. Giraldéz will start his job in Lyon on July 18.
'Coaching at a club like Lyon, training those players, will be a major step forward in my career,' he added.
According to Giraldéz, as well as sources who previously described the move to The Athletic, the organization only began approaching the coach with the opportunity after it became clear that former OL Lyonnes coach Joe Montemurro was leaving. Australia announced Montemurro as the next coach of their women's national team earlier this week.
'From the organization, they thought that the first person to lead that project, it's me,' Giráldez said, describing the timeline for the changes. 'I have to say yes to lead that project, for sure. It's not about them, it's about us, all together, as an organization, owner, CEO and then the sporting director, and then the head coach has to decide something.'
In addition to Kang's overlap of teams, Kynisca's global sporting director, Markel Zubizarreta, and Giraldéz worked together at the coach's previous club in Barcelona. Giraldéz will leave the Spirit in July and will bring two members of his coaching staff who came with him from Barcelona, fitness coach Andrés González and club analyst Toni Gordo, to Lyon.
Giraldéz arrived in D.C. last summer from FC Barcelona Feminí, fresh off winning two UEFA Champions League titles with the Spanish powerhouse. When he left Barça in 2023, he made it clear he wasn't planning to stay in Europe, as he didn't want to risk facing his former club as a rival. However, OL Lyonnes and Barcelona are regular Champions League finalists.
Advertisement
On Friday, Giraldéz explained that he would not go directly from Barcelona to a team that competed against them, but clarified he never ruled out a return to Europe. The stopover in Washington helps add distance.
'When I left Barça, I said I didn't want to compete against them right after my departure, that's one of the reasons I came here,' Giraldéz said. 'But I'm 33 years old, and of course, Europe is still on the table.
'Also, I've said many times, we can't plan five years ahead in this sport. Football is unpredictable. I've lived it. You think you'll be in one place, and then everything changes.'
Something that has been made clear by Kang's multi-club organization is that having assistant coach Adrián González waiting in the wings makes the transition more comfortable. Giraldéz said as much on Friday.
Gonzalez, who was tasked with leading the Spirit through the first 15 games of the 2024 season, while Giraldéz finished the Champions League season with Barcelona, will take over the Spirit full-time again this summer.
'We found that the best option for both sides was going to Lyonnes for the next season, and here (in Washington) they can keep continuing to build some things and be able to get a lot of trophies,' Giraldéz said. 'I don't think the team is going to have less chances to win because the same ideas are coming for the future.'
One thing that has been consistent at Washington is inconsistency, especially when it comes to head coaches. The Spirit have had seven coaching changes since 2021, the year they won their first NWSL Championship.
After players started catching word that Giraldéz might leave, via other players and agents, they held a players' only meeting, according to goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury.
'It wasn't a big shock just because, like I said, we heard of it, so maybe that was a little easier to take,' Kingsbury said. 'But we're very happy for Jona. We're happy for Adrian.
Advertisement
'We've gone through a lot of transition. I think we're well-positioned for this one, because a lot of us have already worked with Adrian. Obviously, he's been here as an assistant coach, and a lot of us had him as a head coach. Yes, we're sad to see Jona go, but just very grateful for the time that we've had with him, the foundation he's laid, the competitiveness he's brought every day.'
Despite the optics, Kang has emphasized to fans and players that the Spirit was her first investment in sports, which carries weight. Kingsbury and fellow veteran Ashley Hatch repeated that on Friday. The club limited questions, however, and did not make additional front office staff at Washington or Kynisca available to the media.
Under Giraldéz, the Spirit finished second in the NWSL and made it to the championship, where they fell to the Orlando Pride. They won the Challenge Cup earlier this year, a one-off match between the two top finishers in NWSL from the year prior, and currently sit fourth in the league with a 6-3-1 record.
'I know there can be some noise around situations like this, but for me, this is all part of the game,' Giraldéz said. 'Football isn't about coaches, it's about players.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
19 minutes ago
- Forbes
Real Madrid Ace Mbappe Talks PSG Feelings And Snubs Lamine Yamal
Real Madrid ace Kylian Mbappe spoke about how he felt seeing his former club Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League, amid snubbing FC Barcelona rival Lamine Yamal as a Ballon d'Or favourite. Mbappe of course left PSG on a free transfer last summer to become a Galactico at the Bernabeu. Failing to deliver a maiden UCL to the Parc des Princes after seven years in the French capital, he clinched the Golden Boot as Europe's top marksman in 2024/2025 but was made to watch on as PSG finally did the job on the continent without him and Los Blancos finished the term without major silverware. On international duty this weekend with France, who must play a third place playoff against Germany in the Nations League after losing a semifinal to Spain, Mbappe claimed that he was unaffected by Luis Enrique's men becoming kings of Europe at their first attempt without him and does not view Madrid's campaign as a failure. 'We have won two titles, that is not a failure. It's true that we lost important games, but it was an enriching year. PSG have won the Champions League without me and that doesn't affect me. It's a good thing,' Mbappe stated. 'I was happy, they went through so many hardships, which I also knew. I've gone through all those stages of PSG except for the victory. But they are the best team in Europe. I don't remember seeing a 5-0 win in a final. They deserve it 100%, they have become the team that everyone wants to beat. 'I don't think I've left too soon, my story was over, it had to end. I don't feel any bitterness, I had reached the end of a road. I tried everything. But fate wanted them to win without me,' he added. With Spain's Nations League final foe set to be Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo also spoke about Lamine Yamal, not putting too much pressure on the youngster, and his chances of winning the Ballon d'Or. For Mbappe, though, who is once more almost certain not to get his hand on the sport's highest individual prize, it is his national team and former club teammate Ousmane Dembele that should get the nod. "I don't think it needs to be explained. There is talk of Lamine Yamal and Dembele, I vote for Dembele. It's very clear," said the Real Madrid player. Though as said he is not considered a favourite in what is deemed to be a two-horse race, Mbappe can improve his chances of being a dark horse in the Ballon d'Or race by helping Real Madrid win the inaugural version of the newly-reimagined Club World Cup.
New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and the French Open final that neither player will lose
ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — Back when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were dominating men's tennis, a pattern developed. The more the Big Three played each other, the better they all became. Across 150 matches, they played, they improved, and they played again, all at a level that everyone else in men's tennis could not access. Advertisement A virtuous cycle for them; a doom loop for everybody else. Something similar is happening in men's tennis again, and the protagonists are Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Their level is already too high for everybody else, but put them on the same court and things go stratospheric. With two of the Big Three retired, and one of them, Djokovic, recognizing that his last matches are coming sooner than later, Sinner and Alcaraz have closed off an era of Grand Slam tennis that was supposed to be open. They have won the last five Grand Slams between them. Sinner took three of them, Alcaraz two. After Sunday's French Open final, that recent tally will either be 3-3, or 4-2 in Sinner's favour. These two have never met before in a major final, but everything suggests that it will become a regular occurrence. Sinner had to be at his computer-game-character best to beat a resurgent Djokovic in the semifinals Friday, but the men's draw has felt like one big prelude to the meeting of a new Big Two. It's had shades of Wimbledon in 2008, when Federer and Nadal lost one set between them en route to a final that has gone down in tennis history. In this context, this match feels like a paradox: a Grand Slam final that neither player can lose. When it's over, there will be a champion and a runner-up, but in the bigger picture, this is just another piece in an overwhelming dossier of evidence that Sinner and Alcaraz take each other to heights that are far too high for their competitors over five sets. They have already become a pack like the Big Three used to be: even if a contender gets past one, they almost certainly won't get past both. Beating Alcaraz took so much out of Djokovic at the Australian Open in January that he couldn't finish his semifinal before a possible final against Sinner; Daniil Medvedev beat Sinner in five sets at Wimbledon last year, but his quarterfinal win just softened him up for Alcaraz a couple of days later. This tennis rivalry is symbiotic, but it appears that Alcaraz needs Sinner more than the other way around. Sinner is so hyper-focused that the motivation of winning the next point seems to be enough for him, even if he did credit Alcaraz with making him more 'unpredictable' after beating Djokovic. Alcaraz is wired a little differently, so sure that matches are in his control that he can easily lose focus, but just as easily bring it back when he needs it. 'Sometimes we just think about myself. Sometimes we think about how I lost the set in the match, and we don't think about how he won the set. So that's the difference,' he said after wearing down Lorenzo Musetti in his semifinal. Advertisement His focus does not wane against Sinner, who he actively enjoys playing against. Like meeting the only other person who likes the same music, or a fellow lover of obscure film, Alcaraz appreciates being around his only real equal. 'My favorite thing is it gives me the feedback of how I can be better, a better player,' Alcaraz said. 'That's important, and that's beautiful, and if I win or not, it gives you a lot of stats and gives you the feedback.' No one can do the things that Alcaraz does apart from Sinner, and their matches make him come alive. He has won their last four meetings, a level of consistency that elsewhere can be elusive. While Sinner was serving a three-month anti-doping ban, Alcaraz looked a little lost. He bombed out of a few tournaments in a Sinner-less world, losing to Jiří Lehečka in Doha and David Goffin in Miami along the way. It wasn't until getting on the clay in Monte Carlo that he found his feet. Alcaraz wouldn't be the first to need a rival to reach their best level. John McEnroe was similarly bereft when his great adversary Bjorn Borg retired in the 1980s. Federer has admitted that he didn't especially want a rival when Nadal emerged, but he came to understand how the Spaniard lifted him to even greater heights. 'They elevate you because you have to play better,' Martina Navratilova said during a recent interview, reflecting in part on her epic 80-match rivalry with Chris Evert. 'You have to be close to your best to beat the other one. Because they're not going to give it to you. In tennis, you can only play great if the other player forces you to play great, because you can only hit great shots if they force you to hit great shots.' Alcaraz and Sinner can hit great shots against everyone, but it's against each other that they achieve greatness, taking each other to levels so high that their good is more than enough to get it done against the rest of the tour's best. Against Musetti, the No. 8 seed and second-most consistent clay-court player this year, Alcaraz meandered his way through the first two sets but still comfortably won the match. Musetti was forced to retire in the fourth set, having previously won one game in the final two sets of their Monte Carlo Masters final two months ago, when the Italian also faded physically. Advertisement 'I knew it even before stepping on court that I had to play probably the best match of my career so far (to win),' Musetti said of Friday's encounter. For Sinner, the comfort he feels against everyone else is even more pronounced. He has lost eight matches since the start of last year: four to Alcaraz and four to everybody else. Before meeting Djokovic in Friday's semifinal, Sinner's longest match at this year's French Open had lasted two hours, 15 minutes. It took Lehečka 55 minutes to even win a game against him, while it was 27 minutes for Andrey Rublev and Alexander Bublik. These are all current or recent top-25 players. But compared to Alcaraz, everyone bar Djokovic seems to feel like a breeze to him. Casper Ruud, a three-time major finalist, lost 6-0, 6-1 to Sinner at the Italian Open last month. It took Ruud 47 minutes to win a game, and he said in a news conference afterwards that: 'It was like playing a wall that shoots hundred-mile-an-hour balls at you all the time.' Against Alcaraz, those hundred-mile-an-hour balls come back with interest. Former leading women's players Kim Clijsters and Daniela Hantuchova spoke in interviews this week about working on improving elements of their game to live with certain opponents, and Sinner echoed this after reaching Sunday's final. 'From my point of view, he's a player who makes me a better player,' Sinner said in his news conference. 'He pushes me to the limit. We try to understand where we have to improve, for the next times I play against him.' There's nothing more helpful for Sinner and Alcaraz than playing against each other. So while only one man can win on Sunday, the rest of the ATP Tour will be the real losers.
Washington Post
24 minutes ago
- Washington Post
She's completed 99 Ironman races. Her motivation? Petting dogs mid-race.
After Jill Walker finished the bike portion of a triathlon, her friend informed her that the top runner in her age group was only about seven minutes ahead. But Walker didn't speed up to try to clinch first place. Her main objective was to pet as many dogs as possible. Walker paused running to pet dozens of dogs over the rest of the course in Madison, Wisconsin. She was about a quarter-mile from winning her age group when she saw a spectator near the finish line holding a puppy above his head. Walker couldn't resist; she delayed her victory to pet her 45th dog that race in September.
