Latest news with #Giráldez
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
FAQs about the Spirit's coaching shuffle. Plus: USWNT meeting Hayes' deadline
Full Time Newsletter ⚽| This is 's weekly women's soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox. Meg is off today enjoying a rare sunny day in Vermont, so it's me, Emily Olsen, here with Tamerra Griffin — welcome to Full Time! Spirit's Shuffle Another coaching change in Washington Stop me if you've heard this one before: The Washington Spirit have changed coaches. Advertisement Two-time UEFA Champions League-winning coach Jonatan Giráldez is headed to OL Lyonnes, another club under owner Michele Kang's umbrella. Let's start with the news. After just 377 days in charge of the Spirit, Giráldez will join the eight-time champions of Europe starting this summer. The 33-year-old is leaving the NWSL club halfway through the season. Sources close to Kang told The Athletic this was not a preplanned move and that it came about when Lyonnes' former coach, Joe Montemurro, made it clear he was going to leave the club after just one season. The Australia women's national team announced it hired Montemurro earlier today. Assistant Spirit coach Adrián González, who led the team through a successful 15 matches last season while Giraldéz finished his Champions League run with Barcelona, will step into the managing role on July 18. Advertisement I've covered the Spirit in some capacity since 2015. If I had a nickel for every coaching change I've seen in that decade, I'd have nine. NINE! Sure, it's not enough to afford the new Inciardi art prints the team sells on game day, but that's still a lot of change for one team. Those changes include coaches dismissed for misconduct, interims, a single-game stint by Angela Salem in the ill-fated 2022 season and now the give-and-go situation happening with Giráldez and González. Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, one of the faces of NWSL, has yet to have a single coach for more than one season at her club. When I asked her at the end of last year how the team was able to get to two NWSL championships (winning one), she took an approach à la Bane's 'I was born in it' comment in 'The Dark Knight Rises': 'It's almost scarier when it's smooth sailing,' she said. What to expect from González González is no stranger to Washington. In fact, he might be one of the most consistent head coaches in the last few years, even if some of that time was spent as both an interim and assistant coach. Advertisement González led Washington through preseason last year and to a 10-1-4 record through the first fifteen games. He helped the team to some of its best expected goal stats since 2021. (He did so with a healthy roster, something the Spirit haven't had recently.) During the Olympic break last year, Giráldez took over. He built on González's strong start to lead the Spirit to the 2024 NWSL Championship, which they lost 1-0 to the Orlando Pride. Now, a year later, the reverse will happen. The Spirit have dealt with a spate of injuries this season, headlined by Rodman, but are currently fourth in the NWSL table with a record of 6-1-3, five points behind No. 1 Kansas City Current. González will have the international break, starting June 23, to reset with the team. However, the organization saw his familiarity with the players as a positive. Kang said González 'knows the team and has earned this organization's trust.' Advertisement Is this a bad thing? Multi-club models have long been seen as corporate cash grabs at best and sportswashing at worst (on the men's side). Kang has been well aware of that perception since she first looked to create Kynisca Sports International, a multi-team global women's soccer organization, by purchasing OL Lyonnes in 2023. She later purchased the only independently owned team in England's second tier of women's soccer, and her investment helped the team get promoted to the WSL. The businesswoman told Forbes last year that the multi-club model is a 'necessity' in the women's game, especially when it comes to resource sharing. However, Kang has made it clear that players don't fall into that category. Advertisement Despite the awkward optics here, González has a strong track record as Washington's coach, so Kang seems to be keeping up her promise not to sacrifice the good of one team for the other. And she isn't the only one expanding, as Kansas City Current owners Angie and Chris Long showed last week with their investment in Danish club HB Koge. Whether women's soccer is paving a new way forward or adopting the bad habits from the men's side will take time to become clear. MORE: Watch Matt Slater answer whether multi-club ownership is here to stay on 'The Athletic FC Podcast' in March: 'It's an unproven thesis. It feels like we are living through an experiment.' USWNT's Core Values Hayes' team 'on track' for June deadline Head coach Emma Hayes said last week that the USWNT is still 'on track' to meet her June deadline for establishing a core group of players that will lead the U.S. in World Cup qualifying next year. She's even found the space to start developing the under-23 group the way she hoped she could at the start of the year (more on that in a sec). Advertisement Despite not having Triple Espresso (Rodman, Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson), this team isn't totally without its caffeine. Sam Coffey scored her second U.S. goal with a wonder strike in the team's 3-0 win over China on Saturday. Coffey — who leads with devotion, as she recently told Tamerra — is part of a midfield that's finally jelling, alongside Lindsey Heaps and Lily Yohannes. The team also has its 'security blanket' back with the return of Naomi Girma. A fun aside: Coffey's game-worn jersey from the match, along with several other U.S. players' jerseys, were up for auction during the game (and there's still time to bid). Coffey's jersey is currently a great value pick for a goal scorer. Advertisement Keep an eye out for the youths Hayes has been as adamant about developing this younger national team as she has been about narrowing down her group for 2027 World Cup qualifying. She sees the two projects as interdependent. That's why players like Jaedyn Shaw (20 years old), Korbin Albert (21) and Mia Fishel (24), who have senior caps (and in Shaw and Albert's case, Olympic gold medals), were named to this camp. This is your reminder to start paying attention to the U-23s, made up almost entirely of professional players, during this camp. They played in two very fun (and refreshingly well-attended!) matches against Germany near Stuttgart on Friday and again today. The teams split results, each side claiming a dramatic 2-1 victory sealed in the final minutes. Ironically, in the May 30 match, it was Evelyn Shores — the only collegiate player on the roster — who netted the go-ahead in the dying seconds of stoppage time to give the U.S. the win. Advertisement Today, in the second fixture, Albert converted a penalty drawn by the Portland Thorns' Caiya Hanks to get the U.S. on the board. But this time, German midfielder Tuana Mahmoud was the national hero with a soaring strike that U.S. and Bay FC goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz managed to only get a few fingers on. Props to the German Football Federation for streaming both matches on YouTube. What to Watch 📺 USWNT vs. Jamaica The U.S. closes this window with a friendly against Jamaica at Energizer Park in St. Louis, Mo. The game was originally scheduled to be a second against China but had to be changed due to a scheduling conflict for the Chinese. Advertisement 📺 Spain vs. England UEFA Nations League continues tomorrow with the final round of matches before this summer's European Championship in Switzerland. And after an emphatic 6-0 win over Portugal to silence the Mary Earps chatter from the public, England take on Spain for a final test before Sarina Wiegman unveils the squad she's taking to the Euros. Full Time First Looks Never too late: USWNT midfielder Lo'eau LaBonta became the oldest player to debut for the U.S. women when the 32-year-old took the field in place of the 17-year-old Yohannes on Saturday. Meg Linehan caught up with the KC captain last week to discuss her first call-up. Teaming up: The Mexican Football Federation will join the U.S. as co-host for the 2031 Women's World Cup, a federation spokesperson confirmed to on Friday. The two nations originally went in on a 2027 bid before backing out. Brazil will host that year's tournament. Advertisement Tears, anger, end of hope: Blackburn Rovers' senior Women's team have been demoted from the Women's Super League 2 after the club decided against meeting the required licensing criteria to retain their tier-two status, plunging the women's set-up into an uncertain future. Megan Feringa reported on the anger, sadness and loss of trust from those impacted by the decision. 📫 Love Full Time? These stories can also be found on Yahoo's women's sports hub, in partnership with Also, check out our other newsletters. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. US Women's national team, NWSL, Full Time Newsletter 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
NWSL issues two additional disciplinary actions to Racing Louisville's Ary Borges and Washington Spirit's Jonatan Giráldez
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) disciplinary committee on Monday handed down two additional sanctions to a player and coach who were each found to have violated league rules beyond its initial judgements. In a statement, the NWSL gave Racing Louisville and Brazilian women's national team forward Ary Borges a further three-match suspension upon further review of her behavior toward a referee after she was given a red card. Advertisement The incident occurred in the aftermath of Racing's April 27 battle of an away match in Portland against the Thorns, which ended in a 3-3 draw that saw two penalties awarded. The league said that 'after further review of the altercation, during which Borges was found to have pushed the center official after receiving the red card, the Disciplinary Committee determined that her conduct violated Section 12.4.10, 'Major Game Misconduct,' of the League Operations Manual.' Following that match, Thorns midfielder Jessie Fleming called the game, in which a league-record 41 fouls were called, among 'the most frustrating' she's ever competed in. 'I do think that match can't keep happening in this league,' she said in a press conference. 'I think it's embarrassing. It alters the match. It alters, really, the sport.' Borges put out a statement of her own that day on social media expressing remorse over her actions on the field and, like Fleming, calling for change. 'First I would like to apologize for the red card at the end of the match, I ended up getting carried away by the emotional side at the moment,' she wrote. 'I'm not much of talking about referees because they are things that are beyond our control but what happened today in the match was a shame. At the level of this league, it is not acceptable to have someone commanding a match like it was today.' The league's recent decision has increased the total match ban from one (for the initial red card) to four for Borges, who has scored one goal for Racing so far this season. Borges, 25, served her first suspension on May 2 when Racing took on the Spirit in a 2-0 loss. She did not travel for Racing's match last weekend against the Houston Dash, a 2-1 victory, and will sit out the team's next three matches from May 9 until May 24. Racing's June 6 match against the Utah Royals will be the next for which Borges is eligible to play. Racing sit in 11th place in the table. An additional action was also taken against Washington Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez for his conduct during the Spirit's rivalry match against New Jersey/New York Gotham FC at home on April 26. Giráldez, who is in his first full season with the Spirit after joining the team from Barcelona midway through last season. Advertisement In the final minutes of second-half stoppage time, Giraldez was handed a straight red card for entering Gotham's technical area. The Spirit, ranked sixth in the league, lost 3-0. According to the NWSL, after receiving the card, 'Giráldez failed to exit the field as required by the NWSL following ejection from a match,' which violated Section 12.4.1 (E) of the operations guide, which addresses sendoffs and dismissals. As a result, Giráldez will now miss one more match on top of the one-game ban he served last Friday in the Spirit's 4-3 loss to Angel City at Audi Field. He will be authorized to return after his team's May 10 game against the Chicago Stars.
Washington Post
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
The Spirit, with a ‘sad' injury list but ‘crazy' depth, just keeps winning
When the Washington Spirit traveled to Orlando last weekend to take on the NWSL champion Pride, the visitors' 11-player injured list could've represented a title-contending lineup in its own right. All four Spirit players who were members of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the Paris Olympics — Casey Krueger, Hal Hershfelt, Croix Bethune and Trinity Rodman — were out. The same went for Andi Sullivan, a starter for the United States at the last World Cup who is recovering from a torn ACL and pregnant with her first child. Also sidelined were Ouleymata Sarr, the team's leading scorer for much of last season, and key contributors Paige Metayer, Kate Wiesner and Brittany Ratcliffe. Rookie Emma Gaines-Ramos and reserve goalkeeper Lyza Jessee were out as well. So what did Coach Jonatan Giráldez's makeshift squad do in the face of such adversity? Grab a 1-0 win that only marked Orlando's third loss since the end of 2023 and snapped the Pride's 22-game home unbeaten streak. 'We're all just so close as a group that I feel like the adversity brings us together and just galvanizes us,' defender Esme Morgan said. 'We're like, 'Well, this is what it is, but we're going to make the most of it and we're going to battle as hard as we can to get the win.'' After finishing second in last year's NWSL standings and making a run to the title game, the current Spirit squad is a far cry from the stacked lineup the coaching staff and front office envisioned fielding this season. Yet Washington still sits at 4-1-0 entering its match against Gotham FC (2-2-2) on Saturday afternoon at Audi Field. 'We know that we are not at our best,' Giráldez said. 'The most important thing is we are winning games.' At least one sidelined catalyst could return against Gotham. Bethune, the reigning NWSL rookie and midfielder of the year, participated in full training this week and could log her first minutes since suffering a torn meniscus in August. Although Bethune made the game-day squad for the Spirit's season-opening win at Houston last month, she promptly went back on the injured list with a hip issue. 'The perception with Croix,' Giráldez said, 'is she is very, very close.' Giráldez also was cautiously optimistic that striker Ashley Hatch — the NWSL's second-leading scorer with four goals — will play Saturday after suffering a concussion against Orlando. But the Spirit will remain down several starters Saturday, with Krueger (knee) and Hershfelt (ankle) training in a limited capacity and not expected back until next month. Then there's Rodman, the NWSL MVP finalist who has been in and out of the lineup since September because of ongoing back issues. After the 22-year-old forward logged limited minutes in Washington's first four matches and scored in the U.S. team's 2-1 win over Brazil earlier this month — her first appearance for the Americans since the Olympics — Rodman stepped away from the Spirit last week to meet with a team doctor in London. Rodman remained absent this week, with a timetable for her return unclear. 'Right now we have to support her,' Giráldez said. 'At the end of the day, we have to be focused on the next game and try to do our best to win for Trin and also to win for the team.' The Spirit has turned to its roster reinforcements to help alleviate the injury issues. Mexico captain Rebeca Bernal has brought poise and on-the-ball polish while playing at center back and defensive midfield. Japanese veteran Narumi Miura has solidified the midfield with work rate and high-percentage passing. Signed a month ago, Nigerian newcomer Gift Monday swiped the ball off Orlando goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse to score her first NWSL goal Saturday. 'Our depth is crazy,' said Makenna Morris, a second-year player who has logged minutes in the back line, midfield and front line this season. 'Our injury list is sad, and we can't wait for those people to be back. But the people we do have out there are absolutely insane and just dogs on the field.' Washington has also showcased its tactical flexibility, switching between four- and five-player back lines while asking the likes of Morris to handle a variety of positions. While Giráldez hasn't been shy about his desire to fine-tune an attractive, possession-based system, the Spirit isn't above a more pragmatic approach. On a day that Orlando controlled 60 percent of the ball and outshot Washington 20-9, the Spirit used its high press to nab a second-half strike and secure the three points. 'It doesn't matter who is playing — the team has to be recognized as a team,' Giráldez said. 'Sometimes you need to defend more time than you would like, but in the way that you have to compete to win. I think that's the most important thing, and the team is showing huge, huge character.' But that doesn't mean the Spirit is sacrificing its identity. When Gotham visits Saturday for a rematch of November's NWSL semifinal — won by Washington in a shootout after Hershfelt's last-gasp equalizer — Giráldez expects his side to dictate the tempo in possession, wreak havoc with defensive pressure and play like a championship-caliber team riding a three-game winning streak. 'We've had a lot of things not go our way this season in terms of injuries and different setbacks, but it just has provided opportunities for new players,' captain Aubrey Kingsbury said. 'We're really finding out exactly who we are.'
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The anti-Benítez: how Giráldez unleashed Celta's youth and spirit
'Claudio has changed my life,' Borja Iglesias said and all around him, as they jumped and sang and smiled and hugged, his teammates felt the same; he has changed all of their lives. At the end of Celta Vigo's victory over Villarreal on Wednesday, players and staff crouched low before fans and for the first time a hush fell over the Estadio de Balaídos. All together now, the chant started slowly, quietly, whispered, but the pace quickened and the volume grew bit by bit until they burst to their feet, belted out their name and bounced off each other, footballers fell into the net laughing and one thought emerged above any other: how much fun they were having. This is the way football's supposed to be: enjoying, belonging. This is the way it has been since Claudio Giráldez came along: good even when it has been bad and getting better all the time. The last time Celta played Villarreal they were beaten 4-3 with a 100th-minute winner, a game of seven goals that could have been 17 after which Iglesias said: 'If we're going to lose, let it be like this.' Eight months on Celta beat them back, a 3-0 victory lifting them into a European place where they have not finished for a decade and embodying all they want to be. Iglesias was a ball boy back then and it was 'cool', he said, but not quite like this, grateful for the days he has been given. Advertisement Giráldez had been thinking the unthinkable, ready to walk, when Celta offered him the manager's job last March. Born and raised 10 miles away and a success as B team coach, he had even won the derby against Deportivo de La Coruña, but taking the first team was not the plan. It was expensive too – Celta had signed Rafa Benítez for three years on €3m each – but this was an emergency. As it turned out, it was also an opportunity. They had thought it a coup to get the Champions League winner in for their centenary season yet he did not complete it, sacked in March 2024, one place and two points off the relegation zone having won just five times in 28, the worst win percentage in 80 years. So they called Giráldez and he matched that in a third of the games. Tuesday Barcelona 1-0 Mallorca, Valencia 1-1 Espanyol. Wednesday Alavés 1-0 Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Las Palmas, Celta 3-0 Villarreal, Getafe 0-1 Real Madrid. Thursday fixtures Atlético v Rayo, Betis v Valladolid, Leganés v Girona, Osasuna v Sevilla. Advertisement Celta climbed to safety swiftly. A year on, having spent zero euros on new signings and Iglesias one of only three players joining them last summer, they are seventh. The final Champions League place, held by the Villarreal team they beat, is within reach. At Balaídos, they believe it is possible, there is hope – and that is a success in itself, the point of it all. It is not just that Celta could return to continental competition for the first time since that Old Trafford semi-final in 2017. It is that relegation, more real than Europe in a time when they finished 13th, 13th, 17th, 17th, 8th, 11th, 13th and 13th, and a fate from which Iago Aspas too often had to rescue them, has been left behind. It is the way they have done it, who they have done it with and what it all means, how it feels. And it feels good, theirs. Born in O Porriño in Pontevedra province, a town of 20,562 people, Giráldez was a Celta fan who said the world stopped when the ball was at the feet of Aleksandr Mostovoi. Nephew of the former Celta and Real Valladolid centre-back José 'Pepe' Lemos, he could play a bit too. Spotted representing Porriño at the Vigo Cup, he left for Real Madrid at 13, arriving the same year Zinedine Zidane did, but home pulled, more than a playing career. He regretted that and regretted the time away too, which he felt even more keenly when his father died. He did not hit the gym, did not look after his diet, did not do the things others did, all the essential extras. Instead, he trusted everything to his left foot and his brain; both were good but not enough. While he trained with Sergio Ramos and Arjen Robben, joining first-team sessions, Giráldez only played one game for Castilla, the B team – and that was against Celta in Segunda B, Group I. Aspas played against him that day in September 2007; Michu scored. He had a year at Atlético Madrid's academy, but went back to Galicia: Pontevedra, Ourense, Coruxo. And then Porriño Industrial, where he did everything from coaching to ticketing to chasing sponsors. He also sold insurance. 'I tell my players now not to be the donkey I was,' he says. But there was something about him that was always more coach more than player anyway. The way he tells it, he learned to read and write with Don Balón magazine, Marca guidebooks and football stickers. He was, he said, a bit of a friki: an anorak, a geek. He played PC Futbol, Spain's Championship Manager with Michael Robinson on the box. He played at coach in his teams too, noting lineups, formations and drills, a collective view which partly got in the way of his individual development. He argued with coaches and admits he could be 'unbearable' and a 'pain in the arse'. He got two degrees – sports science and journalism – and never quite made playing his everything. He got his coaching badge at 19. Advertisement He coached in Tercera in Vigo, took Celta's under-19s in 2021 and the second team the year after. When he reached the first team last season after eight years coaching in the academy, he was the second youngest manager in Primera, behind Iñigo Pérez. He was younger than Aspas, his centre-forward and the club's best ever player. 'It seems like I'm young but I've been around 20 years,' he says. The time at Madrid and Atlético shaped him, especially working under Abraham García, Fernando Torres's mentor. But his ideas also came from Johan Cruyff. Above all they came from Celta, where he watched Eduardo Berizzo and Luis Enrique, had long conversations with Eduardo 'El Chacho' Coudet, and saw what the kids could do. On his first night in charge, Celta won 2-1 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. 'This is the way we have to play,' Aspas said after. 'Even if we lose, we have to play the way we know.' Aspas and his teammates got bored and increasingly irritable under Benítez, something irremediably broken. Fans had too, the identification lost. For the first time in 15 years, under Benítez, Celta fielded an XI without a single academy player. Giráldez was a liberation. He changed everything. The new coach trusted them, believed in them and had inculcated a footballing ideal already. He was closer to them but demanding. Hugo Sotelo says they have a love-hate relationship and Iglesias's claim that Giráldez changed his life, calling him 'the best coach I've ever had', was about support too and the warmth was shared: 'Borja is a man who dignifies this sport,' the coach said. As for the kids, he knew they could play, so they played. The only problem, he said, was the music in the dressing room. It was time to enjoy this. Always watch Celta, even when they lose. They were beaten 4-3 by Barcelona on Saturday and drew 2-2 with them earlier this season, as they did with Real Betis and Girona. They lost 3-2 at Osasuna. They scored 17 in four Copa del Rey games before getting knocked out 5-2 after extra time at the Bernabéu. Only two La Liga teams have conceded more; only four have scored more. They were beaten at home by Madrid and Atlético but out-shot both. 'Celta play, Madrid win,' as one headline put it. Although it took a while, although they lost two in a row before this midweek – that 4-3 at Barcelona and 2-0 against Espanyol – those were their only defeats in 10, the control and assuredness increasing. Giráldez rightly said: 'Survival was the objective. No one expected us to be fighting for Europe; this is something to be enjoyed.' Advertisement Something very real too after 3-0 victory over Villarreal. It was helped by a red card but beyond the points or the place in the table, the whole thing was a portrait of what Celta are, a picture of happiness. Of the 16 players Giráldez used, 10 are under 25, 11 played in the academy, and eight are Galicians, seven from the province. There was a goal each for three generations of youth-team products and Galicians: the 20-year-old Fer López got the first, the 32-year-old Iglesias – the heart of the Celta B Panda Team from where his nickname came before embarking on a career that has brought him back eight years later – got the second and departed to a standing ovation, embracing the 37-year-old Aspas and holding Giráldez in a long hug. And Aspas almost added an outrageous third immediately before scoring a penalty in the final minutes, the evening complete. At the end, as the seagulls flew across from the Atlantic, someone handed Iglesias a Polaroid picture of his goal and 19,324 people put their arms around one another and sang. 'I was at the academy when they were in Europe and the atmosphere was cool but I don't think I've ever seen a communion like this,' Iglesias said. 'We have to look after it, enjoy it and live it intensely.'
The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
The anti-Benítez: how Giráldez unleashed Celta's youth and spirit
'Claudio has changed my life,' Borja Iglesias said and all around him, as they jumped and sang and smiled and hugged, his teammates felt the same; he has changed all of their lives. At the end of Celta Vigo's victory over Villarreal on Wednesday, players and staff crouched low before fans and for the first time a hush fell over the Estadio de Balaídos. All together now, the chant started slowly, quietly, whispered, but the pace quickened and the volume grew bit by bit until they burst to their feet, belted out their name and bounced off each other, footballers fell into the net laughing and one thought emerged above any other: how much fun they were having. This is the way football's supposed to be: enjoying, belonging. This is the way it has been since Claudio Giráldez came along: good even when it has been bad and getting better all the time. The last time Celta played Villarreal they were beaten 4-3 with a 100th-minute winner, a game of seven goals that could have been 17 after which Iglesias said: 'If we're going to lose, let it be like this.' Eight months on Celta beat them back, a 3-0 victory lifting them into a European place where they have not finished for a decade and embodying all they want to be. Iglesias was a ball boy back then and it was 'cool', he said, but not quite like this, grateful for the days he has been given. Giráldez had been thinking the unthinkable, ready to walk, when Celta offered him the manager's job last March. Born and raised 10 miles away and a success as B team coach, he had even won the derby against Deportivo de La Coruña, but taking the first team was not the plan. It was expensive too – Celta had signed Rafa Benítez for three years on €3m each – but this was an emergency. As it turned out, it was also an opportunity. They had thought it a coup to get the Champions League winner in for their centenary season yet he did not complete it, sacked in March 2024, one place and two points off the relegation zone having won just five times in 28, the worst win percentage in 80 years. So they called Giráldez and he matched that in a third of the games. Tuesday Barcelona 1-0 Mallorca, Valencia 1-1 Espanyol. Wednesday Alavés 1-0 Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Las Palmas, Celta 3-0 Villarreal, Getafe 0-1 Real Madrid. Thursday fixtures Atlético v Rayo, Betis v Valladolid, Leganés v Girona, Osasuna v Sevilla. Celta climbed to safety swiftly. A year on, having spent zero euros on new signings and Iglesias one of only three players joining them last summer, they are seventh. The final Champions League place, held by the Villarreal team they beat, is within reach. At Balaídos, they believe it is possible, there is hope – and that is a success in itself, the point of it all. It is not just that Celta could return to continental competition for the first time since that Old Trafford semi-final in 2017. It is that relegation, more real than Europe in a time when they finished 13th, 13th, 17th, 17th, 8th, 11th, 13th and 13th, and a fate from which Iago Aspas too often had to rescue them, has been left behind. It is the way they have done it, who they have done it with and what it all means, how it feels. And it feels good, theirs. Born in O Porriño in Pontevedra province, a town of 20,562 people, Giráldez was a Celta fan who said the world stopped when the ball was at the feet of Aleksandr Mostovoi. Nephew of the former Celta and Real Valladolid centre-back José 'Pepe' Lemos, he could play a bit too. Spotted representing Porriño at the Vigo Cup, he left for Real Madrid at 13, arriving the same year Zinedine Zidane did, but home pulled, more than a playing career. He regretted that and regretted the time away too, which he felt even more keenly when his father died. He did not hit the gym, did not look after his diet, did not do the things others did, all the essential extras. Instead, he trusted everything to his left foot and his brain; both were good but not enough. While he trained with Sergio Ramos and Arjen Robben, joining first-team sessions, Giráldez only played one game for Castilla, the B team – and that was against Celta in Segunda B, Group I. Aspas played against him that day in September 2007; Michu scored. He had a year at Atlético Madrid's academy, but went back to Galicia: Pontevedra, Ourense, Coruxo. And then Porriño Industrial, where he did everything from coaching to ticketing to chasing sponsors. He also sold insurance. 'I tell my players now not to be the donkey I was,' he says. But there was something about him that was always more coach more than player anyway. The way he tells it, he learned to read and write with Don Balón magazine, Marca guidebooks and football stickers. He was, he said, a bit of a friki: an anorak, a geek. He played PC Futbol, Spain's Championship Manager with Michael Robinson on the box. He played at coach in his teams too, noting lineups, formations and drills, a collective view which partly got in the way of his individual development. He argued with coaches and admits he could be 'unbearable' and a 'pain in the arse'. He got two degrees – sports science and journalism – and never quite made playing his everything. He got his coaching badge at 19. He coached in Tercera in Vigo, took Celta's under-19s in 2021 and the second team the year after. When he reached the first team last season after eight years coaching in the academy, he was the second youngest manager in Primera, behind Iñigo Pérez. He was younger than Aspas, his centre-forward and the club's best ever player. 'It seems like I'm young but I've been around 20 years,' he says. The time at Madrid and Atlético shaped him, especially working under Abraham García, Fernando Torres's mentor. But his ideas also came from Johan Cruyff. Above all they came from Celta, where he watched Eduardo Berizzo and Luis Enrique, had long conversations with Eduardo 'El Chacho' Coudet, and saw what the kids could do. On his first night in charge, Celta won 2-1 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. 'This is the way we have to play,' Aspas said after. 'Even if we lose, we have to play the way we know.' Aspas and his teammates got bored and increasingly irritable under Benítez, something irremediably broken. Fans had too, the identification lost. For the first time in 15 years, under Benítez, Celta fielded an XI without a single academy player. Giráldez was a liberation. He changed everything. The new coach trusted them, believed in them and had inculcated a footballing ideal already. He was closer to them but demanding. Hugo Sotelo says they have a love-hate relationship and Iglesias's claim that Giráldez changed his life, calling him 'the best coach I've ever had', was about support too and the warmth was shared: 'Borja is a man who dignifies this sport,' the coach said. As for the kids, he knew they could play, so they played. The only problem, he said, was the music in the dressing room. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion It was time to enjoy this. Always watch Celta, even when they lose. They were beaten 4-3 by Barcelona on Saturday and drew 2-2 with them earlier this season, as they did with Real Betis and Girona. They lost 3-2 at Osasuna. They scored 17 in four Copa del Rey games before getting knocked out 5-2 after extra time at the Bernabéu. Only two La Liga teams have conceded more; only four have scored more. They were beaten at home by Madrid and Atlético but out-shot both. 'Celta play, Madrid win,' as one headline put it. Although it took a while, although they lost two in a row before this midweek – that 4-3 at Barcelona and 2-0 against Espanyol – those were their only defeats in 10, the control and assuredness increasing. Giráldez rightly said: 'Survival was the objective. No one expected us to be fighting for Europe; this is something to be enjoyed.' Something very real too after 3-0 victory over Villarreal. It was helped by a red card but beyond the points or the place in the table, the whole thing was a portrait of what Celta are, a picture of happiness. Of the 16 players Giráldez used, 10 are under 25, 11 played in the academy, and eight are Galicians, seven from the province. There was a goal each for three generations of youth-team products and Galicians: the 20-year-old Fer López got the first, the 32-year-old Iglesias – the heart of the Celta B Panda Team from where his nickname came before embarking on a career that has brought him back eight years later – got the second and departed to a standing ovation, embracing the 37-year-old Aspas and holding Giráldez in a long hug. And Aspas almost added an outrageous third immediately before scoring a penalty in the final minutes, the evening complete. At the end, as the seagulls flew across from the Atlantic, someone handed Iglesias a Polaroid picture of his goal and 19,324 people put their arms around one another and sang. 'I was at the academy when they were in Europe and the atmosphere was cool but I don't think I've ever seen a communion like this,' Iglesias said. 'We have to look after it, enjoy it and live it intensely.'
