Rafa Benítez is one of the most experienced manager in the history of football. Rafael ´Rafa´ Benitez was born in Spain on April 16th 1960. He has been a manager for 25 years and has coached one of the biggest clubs in the world. Rafa Benítez’s managing career has been quite eventful and interesting. In this article I will go through Benitez´s playing career and managing career.
PHOTO: http://www.soccerbox.com/blog/rafa-benitez-at-real-madrid/📷
Player career
As a player, Benítez played for the Real Madrid Youth Team in 1973-1978 and later played for the Real Madrid Aficionado squad (Real Madrid C squad) Unfortunately, he never managed to break through the main squad. He mostly played for the Spanish football club, AD Parla, making 124 league appearances. He retired in 1986. His professional football career spanned 8 years.
PHOTO:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3105767/Rafa-Benitez-arrives-Spain-complete-Real-Madrid.html
Real Madrid B
The start of his managing career started in 1993 when he became the manager of the Real Madrid B squad. He coached the squad for 2 years and eventually moved on to another Spanish club, Real Valladolid. After his stay at Real Valladolid he moved to Osasuna, then to Extremadura, and then to Tenerife. He managed to get Extremadura and Tenerife promoted while he was the manager there.
Valencia
It was not until 8 years in his managing career that he caught the attention of many when he won the La Liga with Valencia 2 years in a row, first in the 2001-02 season and then in the 2002-03 season. Valencia had last won the league in 1970. His winning mentality and his positive influence on the Valencia players made Rafa the perfect manager for one of the biggest clubs in the world, Liverpool.
Liverpool
The Spaniard is mostly known for managing Liverpool. He was the manager from 2004-2010. His biggest accomplishment was winning the Champions League in 2005 in a dramatic final in Istanbul against AC Milan. That Champions League final is regarded by many Liverpool fans as “the most incredible Liverpool match in the club´s history”. He won the FA Cup in 2005-06. He frequently got Liverpool a Champions League spot because he always managed to get Liverpool in the Top 4 (except in the end of his Liverpool career). Rafa Benitez signed some of the best players who have played for Liverpool. He signed: Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano, Dirk Kuyt, Pepe Reina and Xabi Alonso. All of them have now left the club, with the most notable one being Fernando Torres when he joined Chelsea in January of 2011 for a then Premier League transfer record of 50 million pounds. These players definitely made a great impact on the fans and the club’s winning mentality. Benitez got the best out of the players in Liverpool. Fernando Torres told Cadena Cope this about Benitez: “They have been very important people for me in different times. With Benitez I reached a level I perhaps never dreamed of”.
PHOTO: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2037005/Rafa-Benitez-exclusive-Champions-League-winner-gives-views.html
Benitez´s greatest success in the league was finishing second with 86 points in the 2008-09 season. Manchester United, at the time, was the best team in the league and they went on to win the league that season. Many Liverpool fans still respect Benitez and aren’t mad at him for leaving. Some even look at Benitez as a possible replacement for Jurgen Klopp, should Klopp get sacked or join another team. Weather or not he will rejoin Liverpool in the future is completely up to him, but it would certainly be interesting to see what the Spaniard would do to the current Liverpool squad and what players he´ll bring in and what players he´ll get rid of.
Inter Milan
After leaving Liverpool in 2010 he became the manager of Inter Milan. His tenure was short and he was sacked the same year he was appointed. Inter Milan’s previous manager was Jose Mourinho, and Inter Milan fans looked at Benitez’s appointing as a step down for the club. Mourinho won the treble with Inter Milan, whereas Benitez was getting results that the great Italian club was not used to getting. Inter Milan was loosing and drawing games that the fans were not happy about and were not expecting. Benitez responded to his critics by saying: “Back me or Sack me”. Benitez wanted to spend money to compete with teams such as Real Madrid but the club were not having it and he was later sacked, according to Bleacher Report.
Chelsea
In 2012, two years later after being sacked from Inter Milan, Benitez joined Chelsea as an interim. His move to the London Club upset many Liverpool fans and even Chelsea fans as well. His tenure at Chelsea was more successful than his stay at Inter Milan because he won the Europa League with Chelsea in the 2012-13 season. According to a recent story by Mirror, Benitez claims that he has fond memories of his stay stay at Chelsea. “I will focus on my team. But I always say I have good memories, good friends. I know staff and players and we finished third and that was the target.” said Benitez, adding: “We won the Europa League so we did what we needed to.” It was rumored that Benitez´s relationship with the then Chelsea player, John Terry, was bad and problematic. However, Terry expressed in an interview on BBC in 2013 that that rumour was “absolute rubbish”.
PHOTO:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3212254/Jose-Mourinho-says-Chelsea-s-2013-Europa-League-glory-Rafa-Benitez-not-good-stature-side.html
Napoli
In 2013, Rafa returned to Italy and became the manager of Napoli. He won the Coppa Italia in the 2013-14 season, and the Supercoppa Italiana in 2014. Napoli fans were happy that they got to see the team play in the Champions League but they were frustrated at Benitez´s stubbornness. According to a story by ESPN in 2015, Benitez changed everything. From personnel staff to formation and to the team´s way of playing and training.
Real Madrid
When Benitez was presented as the new Real Madrid manager, back in 2015, he defended his Napoli record, saying: “My Napoli team scored 104 goals goals a year, a record, for two consecutive seasons.” later adding: “We had a different squad [to Madrid] but we still managed to compete very well in three important competitions." (Story by Football-Italia) It was clear that he stood firm and confident on his Napoli record, and he wanted to bring that confidence to his way of coaching the Real Madrid Galácticos. Many football fans saw Benitez´s appointing as rather odd and, similar to his appointing at Inter Milan, a step-down for such a big club. History sort-of repeated itself as Benitez replaced for the second time in his career a very successful manager (this time Carlo Ancelotti).
According to a story by Independant, Benitez´s statistics were strong at his tenure at Real Madrid but he did not manage to bring the same winning mentality to the club as he had done previously in his career. He managed to win 17 out of 25 games, a win percentage of 68%. That was five points less than Madrid´s last season, and 9 points less than Madrid´s last time they won the league. Benitez´s final straw was when he drew 2-2 to Gary Neville´s Valencia. He was sacked in 2016. It was rumored shortly after Benitez´s departure that Gareth Bale, Real Madrid´s most expensive player, was “unhappy” that Rafa had been sacked by Real Madrid (report by SkySports)
PHOTO:http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11835/10119674/gareth-bale-unhappy-at-rafa-benitez-sacking-by-real-madrid
Newcastle United
Benitez is currently managing his 12th club in his career, Newcastle United, in England. He joined “The Magpies” the same year he was sacked from Real Madrid. By going from La Liga giants, Real Madrid, to Championship side, Newcastle United, many people looked at his move to Newcastle as the start of his ultimate downfall. Rafa has stayed loyal to the club and has not expressed any desire to leave. Newcastle were in the Championship when Benitez joined the club. Benitez managed to bring silverware to the club in his first season when Newcastle won the EFL Championship in the 2016-17 season.📷
PHOTO:http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11678/10871664/rafael-benitez-agrees-to-remain-at-newcastle-after-mike-ashley-discussions
Benitez has been pretty vocal about his actions in the January transfer window, according to a Chronical Live Story. He will not sell Jonjo Shelvey nor the Serbian striker, Alexsandar Mitrovic. Benitez is unwilling to sell his players to other Premier League teams, stating: “We are not thinking about selling any player to a Premier League team, a competitor because that has no sense. We have to do what we done in August, manage the players we have. “ (Chronical Live)
In conclusion, Benitez is most certainly an interesting character and weather people love him or loathe him he has certainly made his stamp on the footballing world. How he will judged when he eventually retires from management, is uncertain. It is very clear that football fans, football players and pundits will have a lot to say about his way of coaching and his personality. Even if Benitez will struggle with his current club, he can still look back at his triumphant career and feel like a true winner.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Ben%C3%ADtez
Post by: Ólafur Hálfdan Pálsson
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