Eusebio Sacristán Mena, known simply as Eusebio in his playing days, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a central midfielder, and a manager. He had a twenty-year playing career, which started and ended at Real Valladolid, and won an array of domestic and European silverware in his seven seasons at Barcelona. Internationally, he represented Spain at Euro 1988. Eusebio began his coaching career at Barcelona, and went on to lead Celta, Barcelona B, Real Sociedad and Girona.
Playing career
Club
Born in La Seca, Province of Valladolid, Eusebio started playing professionally with hometown's Real Valladolid, being an automatic first-choice from an early age and moving to Atlético Madrid for 1987–88. After that sole season in Madrid he joined FC Barcelona, proceeding to be one of coach Johan Cruyff's most used squad members in the subsequent years – he played the full 90 minutes at both the victorious 1989 Cup Winners' Cup and the 1992 European Cup Finals. Eusebio could only manage 36 appearances in his last two seasons combined, this prompting a move to RC Celta de Vigo in 1995 where he posted two more solid campaigns. He retired in 2002 at the age of 38 with Valladolid, having played 543 La Liga matches, third-best in the competition only behind Andoni Zubizarreta and Raúl.
Upon retiring, Sacristán opened a football school in Valladolid for 6-to-12-year-old children. He also obtained his coaching degree and, from 2003 to 2008, was part of Frank Rijkaard's staff at Barcelona. On 2 March 2009, Eusebio was named head coach of another former club, Celta, as the Galician side struggled in the second division. The following season was not any better, as although the team eventually retained their division status with ease they struggled until the last month of competition; he was let go when his contract expired in June 2010. Eusebio returned to Barcelona for 2011–12, being appointed the B-team's manager after Luis Enrique left for A.S. Roma. He led them to the third position in his third year; on 9 February 2015, however, following a string of poor results, he was relieved of his duties and was replaced by youth coach Jordi Vinyals. On 9 November 2015, Eusebio was named manager of top flight club Real Sociedad after the dismissal of David Moyes. On 18 March 2018, he was himself fired. On 7 June 2018, after three months without a club, Eusebio was appointed as manager of Girona FC, replacing Sevilla FC-bound Pablo Machín.
