Vicente Del Bosque

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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, Vicente Del Bosque was a successful defender who played in La Liga 441 times with 30 goals for Castilla CF, Córdoba 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 the 1970s 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 unceremoniously sacked Del Bosque in 2003, 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 his players like Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman and Claude Makélélé on one side (all these players would also be asked to leave the club that same year 2003), 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 three years period since his departure and have not won a major trophy since.

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 Besiktas, 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 FEMEXFUT (FMF) 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. FMF'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.

[edit] Career as Coach

• 1999-2003 Real Madrid
• 2004-2005 Besiktas

Preceded by: Alex Ferguson	UEFA Champions League Winning Coach 1999-2000	Succeeded by: Ottmar Hitzfeld
Preceded by: Ottmar Hitzfeld	UEFA Champions League Winning Coach 2001-02	Succeeded by: Carlo Ancelotti