OLYMPIACOS FC announces signing Spaniard Diego Martinez to become the club’s new coach.
Diego Martínez was born in Vigo on 16 December 1980. At the age of 20, following his participation in the Celta and Cadiz Infrastructure Departments, he started the process towards his coaching career. From 2001 to 2006 Martínez studied Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the University of Granada. During this time, he was the coach of Imperio Albolote and Arenas de Armilla. In 2007–2009 he took over Motril, coming very close to being promoted to the Segunda División B (third division); he achieved a record point-harvesting and a record number of games without defeat.
His successes with the local Granada team led Monchi, then technical director of Seville, to join his team – initially in the field of methodology and then as coach in Sevilla C’ and the Youth team, with whom he won the championship in 2012. This was followed by his promotion to the first team, which led to his winning the Europa League in 2014, as a member of the coaching staff under the guidance of Unai Emery. In 2014, Martínez took over the second team of Seville, which he initially led to the reserves and achieved promotion to Segunda División (second division) in the 2015–2016 season.
In June 2017 he took over as coach of Osasuna. In June 2018 he became the coach of Granada, achieving a direct promotion to the first division of Spanish football and receiving the Trofeo Miguel Muñoz award, as the best coach of Segunda División. In the 2019–2020 season, as the youngest coach in La Liga, he made history with Granada, since the Andalusian club secured an exit to a European competition (Europa League) for the first time. During the same season he reached the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey) with Granada, knowing from Athletic Bilbao about the exclusion from the final due to the regulation of away goals. In 2020–2021, Granada received ninth place in La Liga and reached the “8” of the Cup and the Europa League.
In May 2022 it was announced that he would join Espanyol. He led the team to 27 La Liga matches and four Copa Del Rey matches. In April 2023 he left the Barcelona team.
Godspeed, coach!
