Ernesto Valverde to step down as Athletic Bilbao manager at season’s end | OneFootball

Ernesto Valverde, the coach under whose command Athletic Bilbao won the Copa del Rey again after 40 years, will leave his position as coach of the ‘rojiblanco’ team at the end of the season, as announced by the coach himself this Friday.

“Next season I will not be the coach of Athletic. It is a decision I have carefully considered over time and has also been discussed with the club,” stated Valverde in a video released by the team.

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The 62-year-old coach thus ends his third cycle as coach of the San Mamés team, the most successful of them, during which he won the Copa del Rey in 2024, a year after securing qualification for the Champions League and leading the team to the semifinals of the Europa League.

A former player of the Basque club, and boasting a long coaching career spanning over 20 years, Valverde also managed Barcelona, with which he won the double crown of the League and Copa del Rey in the 2017–18 season.

However, this season, Athletic failed to qualify for the Champions League playoffs, was thrashed by Barça in the Spanish Super Cup semifinals (5–0), was eliminated in the Copa del Rey semifinals by Real Sociedad, and in the Spanish Championship, inconsistent performance has kept the team out of positions that guarantee access to European competitions.

On Sunday, against Betis, Valverde will reach the milestone of 495 matches as the main coach of Athletic, becoming the man who has led ‘Los Leones’ more times than anyone else in the club's history.

With content from AFP*

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.