Real Madrid name Albert Celades as assistant coach
By Ben Sundock
Real Madrid has found the man who will help out manager Julen Lopetegui for the coming year. The club announced the hiring of former Spanish U-21 coach and senior team assistant, Albert Celades, on Friday.
In yet another move that will make the majority of Real Madrid supporters very happy, the official website announced the signing of the former player turned coach. Bringing Celades over from the Spanish national team staff after working closely with Lopetegui for a few years makes a lot of sense.
Plus, the now Real Madrid assistant has worked first hand with many of the players in the squad and has been a great judge of talent, having used Dani Ceballos and Marco Asensio well during Spain’s impressive run at the U-21 Euro tournament last summer as the head coach.
Celades spent four years with La Roja and was disappointed to be overlooked for the head coaching job after Lopetegui was fired and another former Los Blancos player, Fernando Hierro, was put in charge in Russia.
This, combined with the enticing offer to return to the club that he played with from 2000 to 2003 and again for the 2004/2005 season, was clearly hard to resist.
While fans continue to fret over the lack of movement by the club in the summer transfer window, it is clear that President Florentino Perez and his trusted board are building a stable coaching staff from top to bottom with a heavy Spanish connection.
The working relationship he has former with Julen and his experience as an assistant at both the 2014 and 2018 World Cups is just another plus to this addition. Whether he will join the team for the last two preseason matches in the United States is unknown, but I would expect him to be on a flight in the next day or two to at least get some time in with the team as they train.
This move should help the team to keep up their incredible trophy haul as of the last five years and should provide a trusted advisor to the head coach.
Real Madrid will be back in action Saturday night in Landover, Maryland as they face Italian giants, Juventus, in a preseason match that could have a little more to it than meets the eye.