Awaiting the Final. The Coach. From Madrid to Liverpool.

2007-05-23 14:01 © EuroFootball.com

Before the Champions League final, EuroFootball.com offers a look at the journey of the "Liverpool" team led by one of the four most famous coaches of England and the world, Rafael Benitez, to glory.

Life before the big football

Rafael was born in Madrid, in the family of a hotel owner and a sister, in 1960. He is the second child in a family of three children, has an older brother Francisco and a sister Rosario, whose names are the same as those of both parents. The family was divided in terms of supporting football clubs: the mother was for Madrid's "Real", while the father supported "Atletico". At the age of twelve, Rafael joined the "Real" cantera - the youth football school. Already at the age of thirteen, Rafa showed his potential as a coach when he began coaching a children's football team.

Playing career

Rafa did not stand out as a player with special talent at the beginning of his career, although it is worth mentioning that among his school friends and team was Ricardo Gallego, a player who later represented Real Madrid and played for the Spanish national team in the European Championships of 1984 and 1988 and the World Cup of 1986. Benitez played as a midfielder and initially represented the reserve team of "Real" in the third Spanish league and "Castilla CF" in the second. In 1979, Rafa was called up to the Spanish student national team for the World Student Games in Mexico and scored an eleven-meter penalty kick against Cuba in the match, which Spain won 4-0. In the next match against Canada, which ended goalless, Rafa suffered an injury that forced him to leave the field to recover for a year, an injury that probably prevented him from becoming a top league player. Upon recovery, he was invited to join the "AD Parla" team in the fourth division of the Spanish league, where Rafa helped the team to rise to a higher league. He also played three more matches for the Spanish student national team. In 1985, he signed a contract with the third Spanish league team "Linares CF". His status in that team was different from that in the "AD Parla", as Rafael was now a player-coach assistant. Rafael was often plagued by injuries, which caused him to miss almost the entire season of 1985/86, and he finally retired from football as a player at the age of just 25.

Madrid's "Real"

In 1986, Rafael joined Madrid's "Real" team, this time as part of the coaching staff rather than the players. From 1986 to 1995, the future Valencia and Liverpool coach spent time at Real. From 1986 to 1990, Rafa won three championships with various reserve Real teams. In 1989, he received his coaching license. In 1991, he took over the "Real" U-19 team, with which he won the Spanish U-19 Cup in 1991 and 1993, beating Barcelona in the final both times, as well as the U-19 national championship in 1993. After successful work as a coach with the U-19 team, in the 92/93 season, he was appointed as an assisting coach to the second "Real" team, and in the 93/94 season, he worked as the head coach of that team. At that time, the Madrid "Real" team was playing in the Spanish Segunda league. In March 1994, he became an assistant coach to Vicente Del Bosque for the first Real team, but in the 94/95 season, he was again returned to the B team as the head coach.

Head coach

In 1995, Rafa was invited to work as the head coach of the Premier Division's "Real Valladolid" club. The debut was more than unsuccessful - in 23 matches where Rafa led the team, they only managed to win twice in 23 matches. After twenty-third game, he was fired.

Another stage - Pamplona's "Osasuna" (he joined in 1996), then playing in Segunda Divison. Nine matches, one win, and Rafa had to look for a new job again.

The beginning of the head coach's career in top teams was simply catastrophic, but Benitez was still offered another opportunity to lead a team in the Segunda Division: "Extremadura." And he did not disappoint. This time, his students managed to avoid another disappointment for the coach. "Extremadura" won 23 out of 42 matches and finished in second place in the league, moving up to "La Liga." This team remained in the top league for only one season. In 1999, "Extremadura" finished in 17th place and lost the playoff matches to the "Villarreal" club.

After the season when his team dropped out of "La Liga," Benitez studied for a year at "Manchester United," "Arsenal" camps and in Italy, worked as a commentator for Eurosport, Marca, El Mundo, as well as on local Madrid television. In the beginning of the 2000 season, he took over the "CD Tenerife" team playing in Segunda Division. And it was this team that Rafa brought in some well-known football players: Luis Garcia, Curro Torres, and Mista. As it later turned out, this was the last season of Benitez not in the top league so far. "Tenerife" finished the season among the top three teams in the standings and moved up to a higher division, and Rafael Benitez became the head coach of the "Valencia" club.

"Valencia"

Rafa replaced Hector Cuper in the Valencia club. In the fight for this position, Rafa surpassed well-known coaches such as Luis Aragones, Javier Irureta, and Mané and was underestimated by all three, but the club director Javier Subirats understood Benitez's coaching abilities and chose him. Rafa justified the trust. Despite the losses of Gaizka Mendieta and Claudio Lopez, Rafa inherited a team with potential. Santiago Canizares, Roberto Ayala, Ruben Baraja, and Pablo Aimar were the main pillars of a well-put-together team. Rafa invited two of his former students to this team: Mista, who became one of the most productive players of the club, and Curro Torres, whose performance was good enough for the head coach of the Spanish national team Jose Antonio Camacho to nominate Torres as a player in the 2002 World Cup.

At Valencia, Benitez promoted a more attacking style of play. This tactic led Benitez's team to their first "La Liga" champions title in 31 years in 2002. They failed to repeat this in 2003 and finished only 5th in "La Liga." In those years, Rafael Benitez also tried the UEFA Champions League. There, Valencia made it out of the group that also included Liverpool and reached the quarterfinals.

The 2004 season was much more successful than 2003; it was in fact Benitez's most successful season yet. Valencia won the UEFA Cup, and also the Spanish league title, surpassing the famous Spanish clubs Real and Barcelona.

After this season, Benitez had to leave Valencia due to disagreements with the club's management. The disagreements were about the players who needed to supplement the team.

Valencia was not the only club where he shone in Europe. His career then included Liverpool.

"Liverpool"

Liverpool took advantage of the unrest at Valencia and attracted Rafael Benitez. Liverpool had a similar problem to Valencia's before Benitez arrived: the club had many talented players (Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher, Dietmar Hamann, Harry Kewell, and others), but they did not perform as well as they could. They lacked someone who could bring the team together and turn it into a powerful mechanism. That person was Benitez, who arrived in England.

Rafa's decisions at the beginning of his career in England stunned the country. He decided to sell England's national team attacking leader Michael Owen to Real Madrid and asked for a huge compensation for himself. After selling Owen to Real, the team strengthened with several players from La Liga.

That season did not go well for the team in the English league: Steven Gerrard, Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros, Xabi Alonso, and Dietmar Hamann missed a large part of the season due to injuries, and were overtaken in the league by rivals such as Everton.

However, the Champions League campaign was entirely different. The team started the 2005 Champions League tournament with a not-so-impressive 2-1 victory over the Austrian club Grazer AK and was minutes away from being knocked out of the Champions League already in the group stage, but the team leader Steven Gerrard scored a goal against Olympiacos' goal and helped Liverpool advance to the top 16 teams. After that, everything went much better. Benitez and Liverpool began their journey through Europe. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Juventus, in the semifinals they clashed with Bayer Leverkusen, and in a fierce semifinal, they defeated Chelsea thanks to the controversial goal from Luis Garcia.

And the final. "Liverpool - Milan. Anyone who saw it will admit that it was one of the best matches of all time. Trailing 3-0 after the first half, they managed to score three goals in the second half and win a penalty shootout. To this day, it is the most impressive episode of Benitez's career. Perhaps there can be no more impressive one.

The 2005/6 season brought in two attackers to the team: Peter Crouch, midfielder Mohamed Sissoko, defender Daniel Agger, and goalkeeper Pepe Reina. In the league, Liverpool did not surprise, finishing third and securing a place in the 06/07 Champions League. Their performance in the Champions League was nowhere near as good as in the 04/05 season, although Rafa still says that this year's Liverpool is stronger than the one that won the Champions League. In the FA Cup, Liverpool went a long way to reach the final, eliminating "Man Utd" and "Chelsea," who finished higher in the league, and in an intriguing FA Cup final, defeated "West Ham" after a penalty shootout.

The 2006/7 season began with a victory for Liverpool in the Community Shield final against Chelsea. The team strengthened their attack with Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy, Jermaine Pennant, Mark Gonzalez, Fabio Aurelio, and in January, Milan Baros was sold. Much was expected from this team, but they failed to withstand "Man Utd" and "Chelsea," finishing third in the Premier League and experiencing a failure in the FA Cup.

But just like two years ago, Benitez's team excelled in the Champions League, delighting fans with excellent performances, eliminating "Barcelona" in the round of sixteen, easily defeating PSV Eindhoven in the quarterfinals, and defeating "Chelsea" in a fierce semifinal.

Some Facts

- Benitez became the first Liverpool manager to bring both the Champions League trophy and the UEFA Super Cup to the club. By the way, Benitez's victory in Europe with Liverpool was his fifth, so after that Liverpool could keep the UEFA Champions League trophy forever.

- Benitez has a strict substitution policy. This season, he set a Liverpool record by not fielding the same lineup in consecutive matches in 100 matches in a row.

- Rafael Benitez is a family man. He showed this in the FA Cup match against Arsenal, wearing socks with the inscription "Best Dad in the World."

- Benitez married his wife Montse in 1998. They have two daughters: Claudia, born in Madrid, and Agatha, who was born in Valencia.

- One of this coach's favorite players is Alan Shearer. Benitez said: "If I could choose any football player, I would choose Alan Shearer. It is a great pity that he retired this season. I would be very happy if I could have this player in my team for a year, or maybe even three. He would help us win many trophies. I say this because I believe that Alan Shearer is the best player football has ever seen."

- Among the "Big Four" Premier League coaches, this coach is perhaps the calmest. He fights less with the press than Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, or Arsene Wenger.

- Not everyone admires Benitez's "Liverpool." Frank Rijkaard thinks that "Liverpool's" game is based on physical strength and strict tactics, and they are easily understandable.

Teams managed by Rafael Benitez:

1986-91 - Madrid's "Real" youth B team

1991-93 - Madrid's "Real" U-19

1993-95 - Madrid's "Real" B team

1995-96 - "Real Valladolid"

1996-97 - "CA Osasuna"

1997-99 - "CF Extremadura"

2000-01 - "CD Tenerife"

2001-04 - "Valencia CF"

2004- - "Liverpool FC"

Rafa's statistics at "Valencia" and "Liverpool":

Club - Managed from... - Managed until... - Win rate