Football: West Ham United appoint Julen Lopetegui as head coach

LONDON — West Ham United have confirmed the appointment of Julen Lopetegui as the Club’s new men’s head coach on Thursday. The former Spain, Porto, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Wolverhampton Wanderers coach will officially begin work with the Hammers on July 1, the club said. Lopetegui guided Sevilla to UEFA Europa League glory and Spain’s U21s and U19s to UEFA European Championship success.

The appointment of the experienced Spaniard as head coach marks the next step in West Ham United’s new and growing football strategy, which gained pace in July 2023 with the arrival of Tim Steidten as the club’s Technical Director.

On his appointment, Lopetegui said he is very ambitious with the club and is looking forward to making a ‘big noise’.

“I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big club. We will try to put our stamp on the Club. I feel that we have a fantastic platform. I think the last few years have been very good years to have this base, of course, but my ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims and to encourage and improve the players, the team, and to compete because football is about this – to compete. We are very ambitious about this,” he said in an official statement.

“I am where I want to be. I am here because I want to be here and for us, it was a fantastic day when we closed our agreement here because our commitment is 100 per cent to be here. We had other opportunities but I am very happy that West Ham chose me because I chose West Ham too, so we are really happy about this,” he added.

“We came here with the idea and the thought to make a big, big noise. That’s why we came here, and we are excited by this challenge. Of course, we are going to do our best to help the Club and the team to achieve to achieve the best level and to achieve our aims. I assure the fans that they are going to be key in all our achievements,” Lopetegui concluded.

Lopetegui will be joined at the Hammers by Pablo Sanz (Assistant Head Coach), Oscar Caro (Head of Performance & Assistant Coach), Juan Vicente Peinado (Head of Analysis & Assistant Coach), Borja De Alba (Fitness Coach) and Edu Rubio (Technical Coach). Xavi Valero will continue in his role as the men’s first-team goalkeeper coach.

Lopetegui will meet his squad for the first time when the players return for pre-season training at Rush Green in early July. He will then take the Hammers to the United States for a tour of Florida in late July, where they will take on his former club Wolves and Crystal Palace.