Who is Jose Antonio Lopez?
Born in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona, Jose’s father was born and bred a Catalonian. However Jose’s mother was Portugues and moved to be with his father after meeting him during a holiday. Showing promise from a young age, Jose tried out for UE Sant Andreu and during his trail, he caught the eye of a Barcelona scout who offered him the chance of honing his craft at the “La Masia” school.
Louis van Gaal gifted Lopez a chance in 1997, not long after he turned 16 and he never looked back. Even survived through Ferrer, Rexach, van Gaal (for a second time), Antic, Rijkaard, Guardiola, Martino & finally retired in 2016 with his 35th birthday just around the corner, under Luis Enrique.
Winning a huge TEN La Liga’s, SIX Copa del Rey’s, SIX Supercopa de Espana, FOUR Champions Leagues, FOUR Uefa Super Cups & the FIFA Club World Cup THREE times and that was just at club level. Internationally he shined with Spain, and gaining over 100 caps, scoring a fair amount of goals, important ones too. He won the European Championship TWICE in 2008 & 2012 and of course, the big one. The FIFA World Cup in 2010, famously scoring the winning goal. Amassing a huge 36 trophies during his colourful career, can Jose Antonio Lopez replicate that type of success as manager?
Leeds United set to appoint Lopez?
An eventful 18/19 season in which Leeds ambitiously appointed Marcelo Biesla to lead them back to the promised land of the Premier League, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. With the team sitting in the bottom half, Andrea Radrizzani decided to dispense with Biesla’s services. And brought in Francesco Guidolin on a temporary contract to steer the club up the table and eventually they finished 10th. Andrea potentially looked at keeping Guidolin for a longer period, but Victor Orta & Angus Kinnear suggested they look elsewhere.
They wanted a younger, fresher approach to the managerial side of things. And hearing that he had completed his UEFA Coaching licenses, Victor proposed Jose Antonio Lopez to Andrea and Angus. And after meeting him, they all duly decided that Lopez was the one to hopefully propel the club back into the Premier League after being out of it for the past FIFTEEN years. Can Jose Antonio Lopez be the man to finally end years of turmoil for the long suffering, Leeds United fans?
Last save of FM19, won't be doing a story. Just posting updates of how it's going.
