Quique Sánchez Flores
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Enrique Sánchez Flores | ||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Retired full back | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | unattached | ||
Quique Flores, full name Enrique Sánchez Flores (born 5 February 1965), is a Spanish football coach and former full back. He was the former manager of the Spanish giant Valencia CF.
Playing career
Quique Flores was born in Madrid. During his playing career he spent ten seasons with Valencia, from 1984. However, at first, he did not enjoy the best of times at the Mestalla Stadium as the club were relegated in 1985-86, and when they got back into the top division, they finished 14th in 1988. However, from that point until 1994, they never finished lower than 7th.
In 1994, the defender moved to Real Madrid where he would stay for two seasons and win the league title in 1995. Following his time in Madrid, Flores had a brief spell with Real Zaragoza before turning his hand to coaching.
He made 15 appearances for the Spain national team and was selected to the 1990 World Cup squad.
Coaching career
Quique followed in the footsteps of one of his predecessors at Valencia, Rafael Benitez, by taking charge of the Real Madrid youth team. After winning plaudits during his time with the youth team, Flores was approached about the manager's job at newly-promoted club Getafe.
After an impressive 2004-05 season with Getafe, which managed to finish a respectable 13th place, he was given the opportunity to coach his former club, Valencia, succeeding Claudio Ranieri. In his first season, Quique guided the club to third place in La Liga. This performance qualified the club for the 2006-07 UEFA Champions League where Valencia reached the quarter-finals. As of 24th May 2007, the club guaranteed a top four finish in La Liga and consequently a place in the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League.
On October 29, 2007, the Valencia board of directors fired Quique after a string of disappointing performances.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (October 2007) |
- He is the nephew of Spanish singer-dancer Lola Flores.
- His mother is singer-dancer Carmen Flores
- His godfather is the mythical Alfredo Di Stéfano.
- His idol is Michael Jordan.
- His surname is Sánchez Flores, a typical Spanish naming customs, former from father, latter from mother.
External links
 | ||
- Articles with trivia sections from October 2007
- 1965 births
- Living people
- Spanish Romani people
- Spanish football managers
- La Liga managers
- Getafe CF managers
- Valencia CF managers
- Spanish footballers
- Spain international footballers
- Valencia CF footballers
- Real Madrid footballers
- Real Zaragoza footballers
- FIFA World Cup 1990 players