Lopetegui presented as new Real Madrid coach

Julen Lopetegui was presented as the new coach of Real Madrid in the presidential suite at the Bernabéu on Thursday afternoon, just a day after his shock sacking by Spain, for the way in which his signing at Madrid was handled. After signing his three-year deal with the Spanish giants, Lopetegui gave an emotional speech to the assembled Real Madrid staff and former players along with reporters.

Lopetegui focused in the first part of his speech on how proud he was to be signing for the club and how he would, in line with the club’s aspirations, aim to “win everything”. Only at the end of his speech did he mention the events of yesterday, saying: “Yesterday was, possibly since my mother died, the saddest day of my life, but today is the happiest day of my life”.

In the question and answer session with the journalists Lopetegui made it very clear that he felt that both Real Madrid and himself had done nothing wrong in the way they handled his move from Spain to the Bernabéu. He provoked laughter and applause when he said he wished Spanish FA president “Rubiales had done things differently”. Lopetegui repeated again and again the words "honesty", "transparency" and "loyalty".

The new Real Madrid coach said that the announcement that he was signing for the club had made no impact on the Spain squad, and in fact they had had the best training session of the week after the players had been told.

The one bright spot, Lopetegui said, was that he can now start working earlier than expected for Madrid, and that tomorrow he would be at the Valdebebas training ground getting stuck into his new job.

Live coverage of Julen Lopetegui's presentation as new Real Madrid coach

New Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui to be presented this evening

Julen Lopetegui will be presented as the new Real Madrid coach this evening at the Bernabéu at 19:00, the latest chapter in what has been a remarkable couple of days for the 51 year old. Real Madrid announced on Tuesday that Lopetegui would be taking over at the Bernabéu after leading Spain at the World Cup in Russia. However the Spanish FA reacted both badly and quickly to the news and sacked the coach the next day, installing Fernando Hierro in his place.

Having been fired, a distressed Julen Lopetegui found himself on the next plane back to Spain. Real Madrid were keen to take advantage of the opportunity and install their new coach as soon as possible, hence this evening's hastily arranged presentation. Florentino Pérez will be there to show off his new signing, one which he picked up cheaper than expected, thanks to the Spanish FA firing Lopetegui, meaning Real Madrd don't need to pay his buy-out clause. Don't expect Florentino Pérez to show any contrition for upsetting Spain's World Cup plans...

Lopetegui's to-do list

Lopetegui has a pretty full in-tray to deal with, including Cristiano Ronaldo's renewal demands, the goalkeeping situation, Bale's potential departure, the returning loanees... But don't expect Lopetegui to do much more than say how honoured he is to be joining such an amazing club and that he's going to give it his all. And no doubt, despite the inspiring setting of the Bernabéu, most his thoughts will be 1,500 miles away in Krasnodar