Vicente del Bosque

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Vicente del Bosque
Personal information
Full name	Vicente del Bosque
Date of birth	December 23, 1950 (1950-12-23) (age 57)
Place of birth	Salamanca, Spain
Height	1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Defensive Midfielder
Youth clubs
1968-1969	Real Madrid (youth teams)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1969-1971 1971-1972 1972-1973 1973-1984	Real Madrid Castilla Córdoba CF CD Castellón Real Madrid	000 0(0) 019 0(1) 030 0(5) 312 (14)
National team
1975-1980	Spain	018 0(1)
Teams managed
1994 1996 1999-2003 2004-2005 July 2008-	Real Madrid Real Madrid Real Madrid Beşiktaş Spain
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Vicente del Bosque (born December 23, 1950, in Salamanca, Spain) is a Spanish football coach known for coaching Real Madrid from 1999-2003, its most successful period in recent history, and as a result, makes him arguably one of the illustrious club's most successful coaches of all time.

[edit] Playing career

As a player, Del Bosque was a successful defender who played in La Liga 441 times with 30 goals for Castilla CF, Córdoba, Castellon and Real Madrid. He won 18 caps for Spain and appeared for them at Euro 80. He won five league titles and four Copa del Rey titles with Real Madrid in his playing career.

[edit] Managerial career

Del Bosque served at Real Madrid since 1964 and rose the ranks at the club, however, he only first managed Madrid for a couple of months in 1994 and then for one game in 1996, while he was then the youth team coach placed in temporal care of the first team when the club President and board of directors sacked the managers. But in 1999/2000, the club management decided to give him the full time job after difficulties with their latest foreign coach, John Toshack. Del Bosque was renowned for his calm and expressionless demeanour.

In his four seasons in charge Del Bosque ushered the club through its most successful spell in modern history, having steered the club to two UEFA Champions League titles in 2000 and 2002, two domestic titles La Liga in 2001 and 2003, a Spanish Supercup in 2001, a European Supercup in 2002, the Intercontinental Cup in 2002 as well as being runners up in a host of other competitions including the FIFA Club World Championship of 2000, and finishing in the last four of the UEFA Champions League every year he was in charge. Not since the great Madrid side of the 1950s and 1960s that had Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás did the club succeed so consistently. Del Bosque was famed for his humble, patient and unassuming style which saw him manage the club as it underwent a policy during Florentino Pérez's tenure as club President that was known as 'Los Galacticos'- where the world's best and most marketable stars were signed for the club beginning with Luís Figo, through Zinedine Zidane and to Ronaldo. Del Bosque's management was successful in uniting the many different modern player egos in his star studded team which in his first year of appointment were also crowned by FIFA as the 'Club of the Century' in 2000. Del Bosque managed 104 wins out of a possible 186 in his time as coach of Madrid, a remarkable record.

Shockingly, Real Madrid decided to not renew Del Bosque's contract in 2003, just a day after he won the club its 29th League title and a week after the club signed David Beckham. Del Bosque was offered the post of technical director but turned it down, leading to many suggestions in the Spanish media that there was indeed a much rumoured about political split at the club involving Del Bosque and several players, especially captain Fernando Hierro (who was asked to leave the club in the summer of 2003), on one side, while Jorge Valdano and Florentino Pérez wielded the axe of control to in their words, 'shake up the team', on the other. Perez said in an interview with BBC Sport: "Del Bosque was showing signs of exhaustion. I want to be sincere about this -- our belief that he was not the right coach for the future."

The BBC article states: "It is a strange tale from start to finish - how the shy, moustachioed man from Salamanca came to be in charge of the most expensive and talented bunch of footballers in the modern game, won the biggest trophies on offer and then got the boot in favour of a man yet to be named. With the Real superstars, Del Bosque was extremely popular - partly because he was happier to let them get on with it. Cool as a cryogenically-frozen cucumber, he managed to avoid confrontations with his charges, despite the stellar egos in the squad, and never once lost his calm in front of the media."

Furthermore, as a testament to how successful Del Bosque was, Real Madrid have failed to reach the heights of living up to their 'galacticos' nametag in recent years since Del Bosque's departure- a tag that they managed to shine with during his time in charge of the same derivative of star quality players. Real have changed seven coaches in the 4 year period since his departure and did not win any major trophys until they won the La Liga title in 2007, under new coach Fabio Capello (who was, nota bene, also sacked afterwards).

After Iñaki Sáez resigned in the wake of a terrible performance at the 2004 European Football Championship, Del Bosque was mentioned as a possible manager of the national side. He wasn't interested in the job, however, and Luis Aragonés became national manager.

With Beşiktaş, Del Bosque arrived in Turkey to much fanfare and hope, but failure to deliver results saw him get the sack towards the tail end of the 2004/2005 season.

After Mexico was barely eliminated by Argentina in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the Spaniard was offered the reigns of El Tri but the Spanish technician refused the offer. Vicente del Bosque's cellular phone rang only hours after Mexico's elimination in the World Cup. On the other line "a high representative" of Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FEMEXFUT) identified himself, offering him the post of Mexican coach. Del Bosque said the conversation was a "warm one," and was surprised to receive the offer so quickly right in the middle of the World Cup. FEMEXFUT's director asked Del Bosque to think about the offer "with a calm mind." After 18 days Del Bosque made his decision, however: "No Thank You." Del Bosque said he felt honored to be asked to coach Mexico's national side, but that his priories lay in Europe, and Spain especially.

Femexfut had offered Del Bosque a minimum of $2,000,000 per year. During the 2007 Real Madrid's crisis, Del Bosque spoke on the line saying that the departure of Ronaldo was a mistake, and he was one of the of the candidates and possible names to replace Fabio Capello, until Bernd Schuster was awarded the job on 9 July 2007.

On March 11th, 2008, Del Bosque announced that starting June 29th, he will replace Luis Aragonés as the coach of the spanish national team

[edit] Managerial stats

Last updated March 15, 2008

Nat	Team	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %	GF	GA	+/-
	Real Madrid	1994	1994	11	5	1	5	45.45%	23	25	-2
	Real Madrid	1996	1996	1	1	0	0	100%	5	0	+5
	Real Madrid	1999	2003	141	78	37	26	55.32%	273	155	+118
	Beşiktaş J.K.	2004	2005	34	20	9	5	58.82%	70	39	+31
Total Career				187	104	47	36	55.38%	371	219	+152

Sporting positions
Preceded by Benito Floro Sanz	Real Madrid F.C. Manager 1994-1994	Succeeded by Jorge Valdano
Preceded by John Toshack	Real Madrid F.C. Manager 1999-2003	Succeeded by Carlos Queiroz
Preceded by Alex Ferguson	UEFA Champions League Winning Coach 1999-2000	Succeeded by Ottmar Hitzfeld
Preceded by Ottmar Hitzfeld	UEFA Champions League Winning Coach 2001-2002	Succeeded by Carlo Ancelotti
Preceded by Mircea Lucescu	Beşiktaş JK Manager 2004-2005	Succeeded by Rıza Çalımbay

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