Alberto Ormaetxea

Alberto Ormaetxea Ibarlucea (born April 7, 1939 in Eibar , Guipúzcoa , † October 28, 2005 in San Sebastián ) was a Spanish football player and coach. He was mainly active at Real Sociedad San Sebastián .

Ormaetxea began his football career as a left defender at SD Eibar in 1958 and moved to Real Sociedad in 1962 . The team was relegated from the Primera División in the preseason and only reached promotion again in the 1966/67 season with the participation of Ormaetxeas. Ormaetxea played for Real Sociedad until 1974 before moving into the coaching business.

As a coach, he was first at Real Sociedad assistant to Rafael Iriondo , Andoni Elizondo and José Antonio Irulegi , before replacing the latter as head coach in the 1978/79 season. Real Sociedad almost won the Spanish championship in its second season, but lost 2-1 to Sevilla FC after 32 games without defeat on the penultimate matchday and ultimately only finished second behind Real Madrid . In the next two years, 1981 and 1982 , Real Sociedad became Spanish champions, winning the only two championship titles in the club's history.

In the 1982/83 season, the team also won the newly created Spanish Super Cup against cup winners Real Madrid (0-1, 4-0 afterwards) and reached the semi-finals in the European Cup , where they beat the eventual winner Hamburger SV Eliminated (1: 1, 1: 2).

Ormaetxea remained coach of the team until the end of the 1984/85 season when the new club management sought after two less successful years to rebuild under coach John Toshack . Ormaetxea later trained Hércules CF in Alicante .

He died at home in San Sebastián after a long illness.