Spanish managers are taking over the world. Why?

Tomas Hill-Lopez-Menchero (0:01)

The Athletic FC.

Emma Paton (0:06)

Four of the five managers nominated for the Men's Coach of the Year at this year's Ballon d'Or ceremony hailed from Spain. Today, we're asking why there are so many top Spanish managers and whether the rest of Europe is being left in the dust. Welcome to The Athletic FC Podcast.

Hi, everyone. I'm Emma Paton, and here with me in the studio, we have the Athletic Senior Editor and Spanish expert, Tomas Hill-Lopez-Menchero. Hello.

Tomas Hill-Lopez-Menchero (0:37)

Hi.

Emma Paton (0:37)

Regular Wednesday crew for me and you today, Tomas.

Tomas Hill-Lopez-Menchero (0:39)

Yeah, exactly. Back again.

Emma Paton (0:40)

Back again and back. Welcome back to Jay Harris. Hello.

Jay Harris (0:43)

Thank you very much.

Pol Ballus (0:44)

Good to have you back.

Jay Harris (0:45)

Yes.

Some people will know, some people won't, but I recently became a dad. So I've done my six weeks of changing nappies and feeding, etc.

Pol Ballus (0:53)

And that's back to the football basically. Yeah.

Emma Paton (0:55)

Okay, good. We're very happy to have you back.

Jay Harris (0:57)

Thank you.

Emma Paton (0:57)

And down the line in Barcelona, we've got the Athletics Barca correspondent, Pol Ballus. Pol, welcome.

Pol Ballus (1:04)

Hello, guys. It's a pleasure to be here.

Emma Paton (1:06)

How are you doing? You've had an eventful week already?

Pol Ballus (1:09)

I've had an eventful week. The week is going to get even busier with Barcelona against Atletico de Madrid game on the weekend. But for now, I'm fine. Barcelona won last night. Pretty calm thing after a crazy week last week with the Clásico and everything. So all good for now.

Emma Paton (1:24)

All good for now. Right. But before we get into anything else, on Tuesday morning, it was confirmed that Spain and CD Tenere striker Jesus Demigel had tragically passed away following an on-pitch collision with opposition goalkeeper Jesus Iwono during a Segunda division game on Monday. All Spanish domestic matches were suspended yesterday. And we saw tributes take place across last night's Champions League action with minutes silences before games and Atletico Madrid's Alex Baena wearing a shirt with Demigel's name on the back. Paul, you mentioned already you were at Camp Nou last night for Barcelona's win over Aston Villa.

Obviously, just an awful, awful tragedy. And it feels like something like this really puts all other facets of the sport into real perspective. Tell us how the country has responded so far.

Pol Ballus (2:17)

No, it's been an absolute shock in Spain at all levels.

Spain, the Football Association, they called an official three days of mourning. As you mentioned, all the domestic games were cancelled. That's going to be the case up until Friday.

And yeah, just the shock at all levels from lower leagues to the very top of the game. I was quite impacted by Rafinha last night after the game, saying that he struggled basically to play and to cope with the feeling because Jesús de Miguel was a striker, was his same age, was also has a young kid and he sort of saw himself in that he could find himself in a similar situation, in a similar tragedy and he felt bad and struggled to cope with the thought throughout the day. And he didn't even celebrate the goals. And after he was substituted by Flick and he spoke with Flick on the torch line. And everyone at the Barcelona media were like wondering, oh, is Flick angry at him or are they discussing something? Is he not happy? And then after the game, Flick revealed that, well, he had been strolling throughout just the whole day. And yeah, it's had quite a big impact here in Spain. And in the following days, I'm sure that there's gonna be more to come in terms of an investigation has been launched here in Spain to know the full extent and what really happened and if there was any wrongdoing in the whole process. But yeah, it's been a tragedy that has shocked, for sure, the whole country.

Emma Paton (3:46)

Paul mentioned next steps there. What are the next steps following an incident like this, Tomas?

Tomas Hill-Lopez-Menchero (3:52)

Yeah, well, yeah, as Paul said there, this investigation has been opened, which judicial sources there have told us is kind of commonplace in incidents like this. That kind of part of it is expected to be concluded soon, kind of looking into the circumstances around the death.

There's obviously the sporting sanction as well for O'Wanah, having received the red card that was included in the referees' report. So we'll see what kind of ban he gets. And yeah, for now, it's just clear kind of the club, Spanish football, World of Football, just in the morning, fans turn up to the stadium yesterday. We're kind of paying tribute there, putting down candles and stuff like that. And on Saturday, there's going to be this kind of more fuller tribute as well, where fans will get to say goodbye to the striker. Yeah.