How Aston Villa manager Unai Emery built his reputation: A complete look at his coaching career path
The 54-year-old is one of the most successful Spanish coaches to have worked abroad. Tonight, he faces his seventh Europa League semi-final.
Football very much through the veins in Unai Emery’s family. The Basque coach is one in a long line of footballers - his father Juan, his uncles Francisco and Román and grandfather Antonio (‘Pajarito’) both played, and now his son Lander is continuing the tradition at Real Union, one of the region’s historic clubs.
Starting out in San Sebastián
Like most kids born in Guipuzkoa, Unai’s childhood dream was to play for the region’s top club, Real Sociedad. He signed up with La Real’s youth academy and played almost 100 games as a midfielder with Sanse but only a handful of game with the first team.
After leaving his hometown club, Emery spent eight years playing in the lower leagues with Toledo, Racing Ferrol and Leganés before hanging his boots up for good in 2004 at Lorca. He just didn’t make the grade as a player but had built up a vast, encyclopedic knowledge of game and all of its nuances and inner workings.
Being in the right place at the right time helped launch his coaching career. In December 2004, Lorca fired head coach Quique Yagüe after a poor run of results and turned to Unai, still in his early 30s, to take the post. Not only did Unai turn the team’s fortunes around, he got the club promoted to the second division for the first time.
Almería promoted to the top flight for the first time
He helped his next club, Almería, move up a division too - this time to the top flight - and also for the first time in history. Emery proved it was no fluke and managed to keep the team in the top tier. In doing so, he underlined his budding reputation as one of the most promising young coaches in Spain.
Valencia came knocking in 2008 and hired Emery to take over a team that had struggled under Ronald Koeman, finishing 15th and narrowly avoiding the drop.
Emery guided Valencia to a sixth-place finish in his first season and third in both of the following two campaigns.
In the summer of 2012, Unai accepted a two-year contract at Spartak Moscow but things didn’t work out in Russia - in 26 games, the team won just 12, a win rate of just 46%. He was sacked for the first time, after just six months in charge.
Three in a row at Sevilla
Emery wasn’t out of work for very long, finding employment almost immediately back in Spain at Sevilla. He spent three years at the Sánchez Pizjuán, delivering three straight Europa League titles before deciding to move on in the summer of 2016.
His next port of call was Paris to take charge of PSG. It would be the most fruitful era of his coaching career to date. He signed a two-year contract with the option of a third but quit without honoring his final year. In two seasons, he delivered seven trophies including a Ligue 1 and cup treble but it was time for a new challenge in a new league - a much more challenging one.
Unai had the task of following in the footsteps of legendary French coach Arsène Wenger at Arsenal. He took the Gunners to the 2019 Europa League final only to see his team to crash to a 4-1 defeat to city rivals Chelsea. His overall stats were decent enough - 43 wins from 78 games but he was dismissed after a run of defeats, including a 2-1 reverse to Frankfurt in the Europa League.
Return to Spain and the east coast
Again, Emery didn’t spend too long looking for another job. He was hired by Villarreal on a three-year contract in the summer of 2020. In that first season, he took the Yellow Submarine to the final of his favorite competition, the Europa League and made history by winning the club’s first major European title after beating Manchester United on penalties. Villarreal made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the second time in club history the next year only to be eliminated by Liverpool.
When the chance to move back to the Premier League cropped up in October 2022, Unai didn’t hesitate. He took over from Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa with the team hovering just above the relegation zone. Villa ended the season in a very respectable seventh place.
In 2023/24, Villa reached the UEFA Conference League semi-finals and finished fourth in the Premier League which meant qualification to the Champions League - Villa’s return to Europe’s top club tournament after a 41-year absence.
The following season Villa made it to the Champions League quarter finals and ended the domestic campaign in sixth.
Villa close to their second major European final
This season, Emery’s team have the chance to win the club’s first major European title since 1982. Whatever happens, Villa are practically guaranteed a presence in European competition next season.
Much of that is down to Unai Emery, a serious, intelligent coach with all of the qualities any top club demands: vision, experience, good communication and management skills with his players, staff and the press... his successes in Spain and beyond, similar to Pep Guardiola, demonstrate the coach he is.
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