![\"\u00d9\u0086\u00d8\u00aa\u00d9\u008a\u00d8\u00ac\u00d8\u00a9](\"https:\/\/www.mundodeportivo.com\/r\/GODO\/MD\/p4\/Futbol\/Imagenes\/2017\/03\/29\/Recortada\/img_jagsirvent_20170328-215634_imagenes_md_propias_jagsirvent_b24-kynF-U4212955697009AB-980x554@MundoDeportivo-Web.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSpain coach Julen Lopetegui will take over as Real Madrid boss after the World Cup.<\/p>\n
The 51-year-old, who has been in charge of the national team for the past two years, has agreed a three-year contract at the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n
The move comes as a surprise, with Lopetegui not featuring prominently among the host of managers linked with the role since\u00a0the departure of Zinedine Zidane days after Madrid’s 3-1 victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final.<\/p>\n
The former goalkeeper made a sole league appearance for Madrid as a player and later turned out for rivals Barcelona.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lopetegui previously coached Madrid’s feeder club Castilla in 2008\/09 before taking charge of Spain’s youth teams.<\/p>\n
He enjoyed success with the country’s youth sides, winning the U19 European Championship in 2012 before repeating the feat as U21 boss 12 months later.<\/p>\n
Lopetegui’s forays into club management have been less successful, however. He was sacked from a brief spell in charge of Rayo Vallecano in Spain’s second division in 2003 and left Portuguese club Porto after failing to win any silverware from 2014-16.<\/p>\n
Last month, he signed a contract extension to remain as Spain coach until 2020 but the call of Madrid has proved too strong to resist.<\/p>\n
Zidane’s shock departure came after he had guided Madrid to a third straight Champions League title, but they finished a distant third as Barcelona took the honours in La Liga, and Lopetegui will be charged with closing what was a 17-point gap.<\/p>\n
Among his first tasks will be resolving the future of Gareth Bale, with the Wales forward unhappy with his limited playing time under Zidane and in a powerful position after scoring twice off the bench in the Champions League final.<\/p>\n
Spain coach Julen Lopetegui will take over as Real Madrid boss after the World Cup. The 51-year-old, who has been in charge of the national team for the past two years, has agreed a three-year contract at the Bernabeu. The move comes as a surprise, with Lopetegui not featuring prominently among the host of managers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}