Real Madrid fires coach Julen Lopetegui
October 29, 2018
Read Madrid fired coach Julen Lopetegui on Monday after four months at the helm of the European champions.
The decision by the club's board of directors came a day after Real Madrid suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat to arch rivals Barcelona at Camp Nou Stadium.
"The Board of Directors understands that there is a great disproportion between the quality of the staff of Real Madrid, which has eight players nominated for the next Golden Ball, something unprecedented in the history of the club, and the results obtained to date."
Conte favored successor
Lopetegui's first and only season in the job saw the Spanish giants fail to win a single league game since a win against Espanyol on September 22.
Antonio Conte, a former Chelsea, Italy and Juventus coach, is favored to succeed the 52-year-old. Reports in Spain on Monday suggested, however, that preliminary talks with Conte were not going well.
Real's B team coach, Santiago Solari, will take over in a caretaker capacity until a successor has been announced.
Lopetegui was fired as the coach of the Spanish national team a day before the 2018 World Cup started in June after he announced he had accepted an offer to take over as Real coach after the tournament.
The Madrid job opened up surprisingly at the end of the last season when Zinedine Zidane quit the club days after leading them to a third consecutive Champions League title. Zidane reportedly quit after arguing over transfer policy with under-pressure club president Florentino Perez.
amp/msh (AP, Reuters)