Unai Emery


Unai Emery Etxegoien is a Spanish football manager, currently in charge of La Liga side Villarreal, and former player.
After a modest playing career spent mostly in Spain's Segunda División, Emery transitioned into coaching after retiring in 2004. He began at Lorca Deportiva, where he achieved promotion to the Segunda División in his first season and was subsequently awarded the Miguel Muñoz Trophy. He then joined Almería, who he led to promotion to La Liga for the first time in the club's history. This earned him a move to La Liga heavyweights Valencia, where he regularly led the team to top-three finishes. After leaving Valencia, he coached Spartak Moscow for six months, before moving to Sevilla in 2013.
At Sevilla, Emery gained plaudits for his style of football, and shrewdness in the transfer market alongside Monchi, the club's director of football. He achieved an unprecedented three consecutive Europa League victories, which earned him a move to French club Paris Saint-Germain in 2016. In his first year managing PSG, he led them to a stylized domestic treble, winning the Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue and Trophée des Champions, while finishing second in the year-end tables for Ligue 1. Emery exceeded this in his second season with a domestic quadruple of Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the Coupe de la Ligue and Trophée des Champions.
After the expiry of his contract with PSG, Emery was appointed head coach of English club Arsenal in May 2018, following the resignation of long-serving Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, and reached the Europa League final in his first season. Emery was dismissed as head coach in November 2019 after a series of poor results, and hired by Villarreal the following July.

Early life and playing career

Emery was born in Hondarribia, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country. His father and grandfather, named Juan and Antonio respectively, were also footballers, both goalkeepers. The former appeared for several clubs in the second tier, whilst the latter competed with Real Unión in the top division. Emery's uncle, Román, played as a midfielder.
Emery, a left-sided midfielder, was a youth graduate of Real Sociedad, but never really broke into the first team. After that, he resumed his career mostly in the Segunda División, amassing totals of 215 matches and nine goals over seven seasons.
He retired with Lorca Deportiva CF at the age of 32, after one season in Segunda División B.

Managerial career

Lorca and Almería

Emery suffered a serious knee injury while at Lorca in the 2004–05 season; he was offered the vacant manager position by the club president, and immediately helped the club achieve promotion to the second division for the first time in its history, while beating top level side Málaga in the Copa del Rey. In his second season, the Murcians' first ever in the second division, the team finished fifth with 69 points, only five points off promotion to the top flight; they suffered relegation in 2007, after the manager's departure.
Emery then moved to Almería in division two, and again helped his squad overachieve: after guiding them to a first ever promotion in 2007, the Andalusian side finished eighth in La Liga in 2007–08. This prompted a move to Valencia, where he succeeded Ronald Koeman as manager.

Valencia

In 2008–09, his first season with Los Che, Emery led them to a sixth-place finish, with subsequent qualification to the UEFA Europa League, in spite of the club's serious financial problems. The team reached the Round of 32 in the UEFA Cup, a 3–3 aggregate loss against Dynamo Kyiv, and the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, exiting against Sevilla.
In 2009–10, Emery led Valencia to third place, so the club returned to the UEFA Champions League after two years. In the Europa League they lost in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Atlético Madrid on the away goals rule, and exited in the round of 16 in the Copa del Rey against Deportivo de La Coruña, losing 3–4 on aggregate. In May 2010 Emery renewed his contract for another year.
2010–11 started without David Villa and David Silva, sold to Barcelona and Manchester City respectively. Despite this, Valencia won five out of the first six league games, starting the Champions League campaign with a 4–0 win in Turkey against Bursaspor, before being eliminated in the round of 16 by Schalke, and being knocked out in the same stage in the Copa del Rey by Villareal. In the domestic league the side finished third, thus again qualifying for the Champions League.
Emery left the club in June 2012, after again finishing third in 2011–12.

Spartak Moscow

On 13 May 2012, Leonid Fedun, owner of Spartak Moscow, announced Emery as the Russian club's coach for the following two seasons. On 25 November he was sacked after a run of poor results, the last one being a 1–5 derby home loss against Dynamo Moscow.

Sevilla

Emery returned to Spanish football on 14 January 2013, replacing the sacked Míchel at the helm of Sevilla. He led the club to fifth position in 2013–14, his first full season, and, on 14 May 2014, won the Europa League final, defeating Benfica on penalties.
After finishing the 2014–15 season in fifth place, one point behind former club Valencia, Emery again won the Europa League after defeating Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, thus qualifying for the following Champions League. The victory meant that Sevilla became the most successful club in the history of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, with four wins, and Emery signed a one-year contract extension on 5 June 2015 which would have kept him at the club until 2017, after reported interest from West Ham United and Napoli.
In 2015–16 Emery led Sevilla to seventh position, having played the final games of the domestic league with several reserves and youth team players after the team confirmed their place in the Europa League final. On 18 May 2016, despite trailing 0–1 at half-time, a goal from Kevin Gameiro and two from Coke resulted in a 3–1 victory over Liverpool at St. Jakob-Park in Basel.
On 12 June 2016, after Emery expressed his desire to leave Sevilla, the club announced that they would be parting ways.

Paris Saint-Germain

On 28 June 2016, Emery signed a two-year deal, with the option of a third, to succeed Laurent Blanc at French quadruple-holders Paris Saint-Germain. In his first competitive match in charge, on 6 August, his side beat Lyon 4–1 in Austria to lift the Trophée des Champions.
Emery led PSG to second place in their group of the Champions League, behind Arsenal. In the first knockout round they defeated Barcelona 4–0 at the Parc des Princes, only to historically lose 1–6 in Spain and subsequently be eliminated.
On 1 April, he picked up his second honour with les Rouge-et-Bleu with a 4–1 win over title rivals Monaco in the final of the Coupe de la Ligue. On 28 April 2018, Emery announced his decision to leave the Parisian club at the end of the season with a year left on his contract. He was replaced by German coach Thomas Tuchel at PSG following the conclusion of the 2017–18 season.

Arsenal

On 23 May 2018, Emery was appointed head coach of Arsenal. He agreed to a two-year deal, with the club having the option to extend his deal for a further year. In his first competitive game in charge, on 13 August, his side lost to Manchester City 0–2 in the Premier League. After a second consecutive loss to Chelsea on 18 August, Emery recorded his first win as Arsenal manager on 25 August, in a 3–1 home win over West Ham United. After this game, Arsenal won 11 games in a row, their best run of form since 2007. Arsenal then extended their unbeaten run to 22 games. Their 3–2 loss to Southampton in December was the first time they had been defeated in all competitions since August. Emery yet again reached a Europa League final, but was unsuccessful as Arsenal were beaten 4–1 by fellow English side Chelsea. Arsenal finished the season in fifth position, one place higher than the previous season, narrowly missing out on a Champions League spot.
In the 2019 summer transfer window, Emery broke Arsenal's previous club record by signing Ivory Coast winger Nicolas Pépé. He also brought in David Luiz from rivals Chelsea and Scotsman Kieran Tierney from Celtic. Pépé recorded his first assist against arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby, which finished in a 2–2 draw.
On 29 November 2019, following a series of poor results and a winless run of seven games, Emery was sacked by Arsenal. His final game in charge was a 2–1 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League. He was replaced on an interim basis by Freddie Ljungberg and later on a permanent basis by Mikel Arteta.

Villarreal

On 23 July 2020, Emery was announced as the new head coach of La Liga side Villarreal, succeeding Javier Calleja on a three-year deal.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Sevilla
Paris Saint-Germain
Arsenal
Individual