Next Spain Manager Odds

Following recent news that Spain manager Luis Enrique has left his post as manager, we’ve taken a look at potential candidates to lead Spain at Euro 2024.

Under Enrique, Spain managed to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2020 where they were beaten by Italy on penalties after a 1-1 draw. But, La Roja suffered a humiliating defeat to Morocco on penalties in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar - meaning that they haven’t won a knockout match at the World Cup since winning the tournament in 2010.

Spain’s Under 21s manager Luis de la Fuente has been rumoured to be the best-placed man to take over from Enrique.

The 61-year-old has worked in Spain’s youth setups since 2013 having previously coached Bilbao Athletic, Athletic Bilbao’s reserve team, as well as Deportivo Alaves.

During his time working with Spain’s youth sides, he has managed to win the Under 19s European Championship in 2015, before winning the U21 edition of this tournament just four years later. At the Olympic Games in Japan, he coached Spain to a silver medal after losing 2-1 to Brazil after extra time.

Roberto Moreno could be a candidate for the national team job, having served as interim manager in between Enrique’s two spells as Spain's manager.

The 45-year-old led La Roja nine times, winning seven and drawing two of his matches while seeing them score 29 goals and concede just four times.

Since his temporary spell as Spain manager, Moreno has had spells at AS Monaco where he was sacked after finishing ninth in Ligue 1 with them in the 2019/20 season, despite taking over in December that campaign. On top of this, Moreno was also sacked as Granada manager last season, having won just six of his 29 matches in charge of the Andalusians.

Real Sociedad manager Imanol Alguacil is another name that Spain could look towards, although it could be hard to prize the 51-year-old away from his current side, having worked as a coach there since 2011, while also being an ex-player of the club.

Alguacil memorably lead Sociedad to the 2019/20 Copa del Rey after beating Basque County rivals Athletic Bilbao 1-0 in the final thanks to a goal from Spain star, Mikel Oyarzabal. The Orio born-manager has taken charge of 190 games at first-team level and has improved Sociedad during this time, as they currently sit third in La Liga ahead of the league’s resumption.

Could former Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde step up to become Spain’s national team manager?

The 58-year-old currently manages Athletic Bilbao having taken over in June for a third spell. At present, the Basque club sits fourth in La Liga having won eight and drawn three of their last 15 matches under the Spaniard.

Valverde has an impressive managerial CV, having also taken charge of the likes of Espanyol, Olympiakos, Villarreal and Valencia so would have no issues with dealing with the pressures of being Spain manager.

As far as major honours go, Valverde lead Espanyol to the UEFA Cup final of 2007, but, finished as runners-up, however, the 58-year-old won three league titles with Olympiakos in Greece, as well as two Greek cups between 2008 and 2009 as well as in his second spell at the club from August 2010 and May 2012.

Valverde is perhaps known best for his time as Barca manager, where he lead them to two La Liga titles in 2017/18 and 2018/19. During his time at the Nou Camp, Barcelona also won the Copa del Rey in 2017/18 and the 2018 Supercopa de Espana. However, Valverde sacked in January 2020 despite sitting at the top of La Liga with the Spanish giants.

The final manager on this list is ex-Belgium coach Roberto Martinez who has recently left his job as Belgium manager.

During his time as manager of the Red Devils, he lead them to a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup and to the quarter-final of Euro 2020 where Belgium were beaten 2-1 by Italy. But, his last tournament as manager finished in disastrous fashion, as the Red Devils reportedly had a rift between the squad and they crashed out at the group stages of the 2022 World Cup.

Martinez finished his time as Belgium manager with the most wins of anybody in their national team history, while also leading them to top of the FIFA World Rankings for three years running.