Sports
11:30, 13-Jun-2018
Spain coach Lopetegui to take Real Madrid job after World Cup
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Real Madrid on Tuesday announced the appointment of Spain's Julen Lopetegui as their coach for the next season, stunning the national team ahead of the start of the World Cup.
"Real Madrid announce that Julen Lopetegui will be the coach of the first team during the next three seasons," the Champions League winners said in a statement, adding that the 51-year-old "will join the club after Spain's participation in the World Cup."
Lopetegui will replace Zinedine Zidane as coach at the Santiago Bernabeu, after the Frenchman quit on May 31 in the wake of their Champions League final win over Liverpool in Kiev.
The news comes as a jolt for Spain, just three days before their opening game at the 2018 World Cupagainst Iberian neighbors Portugal in Sochi. Lopetegui and the Spain squad are currently at their training base in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed that Madrid will pay compensation to get Lopetegui out of the two years he has remaining on his contract with the national team. He only signed an extension to his deal until 2020 last month.
As a player, Basque-born Lopetegui was a goalkeeper on Real's books early in his career, and he returned for a spell in charge of their second team a decade ago.
He also briefly played for Barcelona and later led Spain's under-21 side to the European Championship title in 2013.
He went on to coach Porto before succeeding Vicente del Bosque, who had overseen Spain's triumphs at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 but had also been in charge for the disappointing group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Source(s): AFP