Xabier Azkargorta

Xabier Azkargorta
Personnel
Surname	Francisco Xabier Azkargorta Uriarte
birthday	September 26, 1953
place of birth	Azpeitia ,  Spain
size	175 cm
position	Center Forward
Juniors
Years	station
1969-1971	Real Sociedad
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1971-1977	Athletic Bilbao
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1978-1980	Lagun Onak
1980-1982	Aurrerá Vitoria
1982-1983	Gimnàstic de Tarragona
1983-1986	RCD Espanyol
1986-1987	Real Valladolid
1987-1988	Sevilla FC
1990	CD Tenerife
1993-1994	Bolivia
1995-1996	Chile
1997-1998	Yokohama Marinos
2005	Chivas Guadalajara
2012	Bolivia
1 Only league games are given.

Francisco Xabier Azkargorta Uriarte (born September 26, 1953 in Azpeitia , Basque Country , Spain ), better known by his short name Xabier Azkargorta , is a former Spanish football coach and player who has been the Bolivian national coach since August 2012 .

biography

Born in Basque, he began his career in the youth team of Real Sociedad San Sebastián and moved to Athletic Bilbao in 1971 , where he spent his entire professional career. He had to end this in 1977 due to a serious injury to his right knee. His greatest success with Bilbao was winning the Copa del Rey in 1973.

Subsequently, Azkargota, also known by the nickname el Bigotón , worked as a coach for various club and national teams, before moving to management for the first time in 2003.

After taking care of the youth team of the Basque CD Lagun Onak between 1978 and 1980, the CD Aurrerá de Vitoria , which is also based in the Basque Country, for the next two years and the Catalan club Gimnàstic de Tarragona in the 1982/83 season , he joined RCD Espanyol in 1983 offered a coaching job for a first division club for the first time. After further positions at Real Valladolid , FC Sevilla and CD Tenerife , he left Spain to look after the national teams of Bolivia (1993–94) and Chile (1995–96). Then he was obliged by the Japanese first division club Yokohama Marinos , whom he supervised in the 1997/98 season.

One of his greatest successes as a coach was Bolivia's participation in the World Cup in 1994 . In the qualifying round, Bolivia had defeated the huge favorites Brazil 2-0 at the height of La Paz and only scored one point less than group winners Brazil. Bolivia also scored 22 goals (14 of them in the two games against Venezuela alone), two more than the Brazilians. In the last group game in the preliminary round at the 1994 World Cup, Bolivia met Azkargorta's home country Spain and lost 3-1.

In 2003 el Bigotón Azkargorta received a contract with Real Madrid and was sent to Mexico to look after the newly established Real Madrid sports school. Two years later, the Mexican club Chivas Guadalajara offered him the post of head coach of his first team during Apertura 2005. Azkargorta only had a three-month stint there. He led the team through the last twelve games of the winter tournament of the 2005/06 season , in which, however, they could only score eleven points and he was dismissed immediately after the end of the season.

Real Madrid, which at the time had just signed a cooperation agreement with some Chinese clubs, brought Azkargorta back on board and entrusted him with the sporting direction of Beijing Guoan .

Since July 2008, Xabier Azcargorta was under contract as sports director of Valencia CF.

In August 2012 he took over the post of Bolivian national coach again.

Sources and web links

• El Enganche interview with Xabier Azkargorta (Spanish)
• Coaching stations and sports management at Beijing Gouan (Spanish)

Individual references and web links

1. ↑ http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=300304&tabla=notas (link not available)
2. ↑ Askargorta signs with Valencia (Spanish)
3. ↑ FIFA.com: Azkargorta: "I couldn't refuse"