This time, the man who should have been Iraola\u2019s assistant is instead his opponent, nothing given for 90 minutes. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing him; we speak continuously, always there,\u201d P\u00e9rez says. \u201cTo encounter each other pitchside is emotional. When the referee blows, it all ends, but it\u2019s a very nice story.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story starts in 2002, when P\u00e9rez arrived at Athletic Club Bilbao\u2019s academy, aged 14. Iraola was 19, six months from his first\u2011team debut. They first played together in the first team in October 2009 but, teenagers and tenants, something had already drawn them together and would do again. If P\u00e9rez was more open, Iraola more private, timid even, there was much they shared: an inquisitive mind, an ability to observe and listen, a humility befitting a club where presumptuousness is prohibited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntellectually they\u2019re brilliant,\u201d says a teammate from that time, Carlos Gurpegui, intelligent a word that keeps coming back and with warmth too. \u201cAndoni had a privileged mind and I\u00f1igo was so intuitive. We played [Fantasy Football] and Andoni always won,\u201d the goalkeeper Ra\u00fal Fern\u00e1ndez recalls.<\/p>\n
I\u00f1igo P\u00e9rez celebrates a goal with Athletic Bilbao teammates, including Andoni Iraola (far left) in the Europa League in March 2012. Photograph: Dennis Grombkowski\/Bongarts\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
If that gave them natural leadership, it was worn lightly, not imposed. As one coach notes: \u201cIf everyone was going left and Andoni said: \u2018Go right,\u2019 they\u2019d all be like: \u2018Yeah, yeah, go right!\u2019 They are two unusually intelligent guys, always rationalising, able to reach others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iraola saw it in the kid coming through, ideas explored together. \u201cI\u00f1igo was always aware of tactical [shifts],\u201d he said later. \u201cAt 14 or 15, the way he thought about the game was mature. Ever since I knew I\u00f1igo, I thought he had the personality to be a coach. In fact, he had a clearer idea about being a coach than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
David L\u00f3pez, who played alongside them, says: \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise they became coaches.\u201d Eneko B\u00f3veda, who came through the academy with P\u00e9rez, says: \u201cThey might have become coaches individually; together, they were bound to. I\u00f1igo was extremely impressive in personal relationships, inside every dressing\u2011room circle: emotionally intelligent, empathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The age difference was no barrier, a product of their place, the communal culture that made them. \u201cWhen we reached the first team, that generation [above] was established, but it was very easy to talk to them, even take life advice,\u201d recalls Fern\u00e1ndez, born in 1988, like P\u00e9rez. \u201cI remember asking Andoni what to do about my contract. Under Marcelo Bielsa<\/a>, the players would come together before games with a hot chocolate, a croissant and talk. Bielsa was super\u2011demanding<\/a>, always at your throat; we took refuge in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n P\u00e9rez might not have been there at all, unwanted by Bielsa until the training session when he crashed into the goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz. \u201cThere was blood everywhere, his lip split open, but I\u00f1igo carries on and Marcelo thinks: \u2018I can follow this guy to the end of the world,\u2019\u201d Gurpegui recalls. Picturing the scene, Fern\u00e1ndez starts laughing: \u201cI\u00f1igo didn\u2019t know what would happen to him. I seem to remember him even sleeping at Lezama [the training ground] on a mattress, which showed how committed he was. And that day Bielsa was shouting at the physios: \u2018Leave him! Leave him! He wants to carry on!\u2019 He\u2019s going to I\u00f1igo: \u2018Bravo! Bravo! That\u2019s it, lad!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n An opportunity opened at full\u2011back and P\u00e9rez did what he always did: adapted. Above all, they observed, took it all in. \u201cI\u00f1igo and I would speak a lot about the way Bielsa coached,\u201d Iraola recalled. They would ask endless questions of assistants Claudio Vivas, Pablo Quiroga and Diego Reyes, always wanting to know why. \u201cBut then they\u2019re football nutcases who learned from everything,\u201d Boveda says.<\/p>\n Andoni Iraola, then at Bournemouth, invited I\u00f1igo P\u00e9rez and his Rayo Vallecano side to England for a pre-season friendly in August 2024. Photograph: Robin Jones\/AFC Bournemouth\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Their last game together was in October 2013. Iraola retired in 2016 and started coaching two years later. Unseen, P\u00e9rez was drifting in the same direction. Common friends and a shared agent meant they were never far away and in February 2022 they crossed paths again. P\u00e9rez didn\u2019t play when Osasuna won 3-0 at Rayo but their conversation that night stuck in Iraola\u2019s mind, a mental note made.<\/p>\n Aged 34, P\u00e9rez had told Iraola his role now was really about helping the coaches. Indeed, Osasuna\u2019s manager Jagoba Arrasate was already referring to him as a \u201cplayer-assistant coach\u201d and soon invited him to join the staff. Bielsa approached him too, furious when P\u00e9rez turned down Uruguay. When Iraola heard P\u00e9rez was retiring, he called immediately, convincing him to come to Rayo. The assistant coach Unai Mendia was leaving and his old teammate was perfect. The impression made was immediate: \u201cI\u00f1igo\u2019s top,\u201d a member of Rayo\u2019s coaching staff says. \u201cHe was special, a phenomenon. Super\u2011elite, like Andoni.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Together with the fitness coach Pablo de la Torre, who constructed a physical model around which the whole, wild ride was built, they were a revelation<\/a>, practitioners of organised chaos. Nowhere was football more fun, a shared vision soon enticed to the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we found out that Andoni was leaving for Bournemouth, I told I\u00f1igo he should be our head coach,\u201d the Rayo striker Sergio Camello<\/a> recalls, and the club hierarchy agreed. P\u00e9rez, though, thought it would be morally wrong: this was Iraola\u2019s construction, not his to take. Besides, he wanted to continue with his friend. Iraola wanted that as well, taking only two staff to England: P\u00e9rez and De la Torre. It was a new start, a new life, and he needed his partners there.<\/p>\n But then P\u00e9rez was denied a work permit. Bournemouth took it to an FA exceptions panel. Supporting letters were sent, a case made. Iraola wrote, too, explaining their history and describing P\u00e9rez as \u201cfundamental\u201d. The panel, though, remained unsatisfied that he was \u201cof the highest calibre and able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in England\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did everything we could,\u201d P\u00e9rez said, which was true: they even requested a permit as youth\u2011team coach, earning a telling off for trying it on. As he awaited a final resolution, P\u00e9rez kept working: he couldn\u2019t wear a club tracksuit, appear publicly or sit on the bench, but he was at the training ground daily. Until, in the late autumn, they had to admit defeat. That hurt, personally as much as professionally. \u201cIt was very difficult, an uncomfortable situation for all of us,\u201d Iraola says. \u201cYou can\u2019t [work], you can\u2019t put your kids in school.\u201d<\/p>\n Between them, Shaun Cooper, Tommy Elphick and De la Torre had to assimilate P\u00e9rez\u2019s duties, Iraola impressed and grateful at the staff he inherited. His tourist visa expiring, P\u00e9rez returned to Spain. Calls from Bournemouth continued, some consultation and a lot of conversation, not always about football. Then when Rayo sacked Francisco Rodr\u00edguez in early 2024, the club offered him the manager\u2019s job again. Iraola encouraged P\u00e9rez to go for it. \u201cIn the summer, I didn\u2019t feel ethically comfortable and I wanted to continue with Andoni,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cThe circumstances changed.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u00f1igo P\u00e9rez shows the way during Villarreal\u2019s Champions League 3-2 defeat against Borussia Dortmund in September 2026. Photograph: J\u00fcrgen Fromme\/firo sportphoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Camello admits: \u201cI think the transition from assistant to head coach here was hard. He had been so close to us. I\u00f1igo loved us too much: he felt so responsible for us that the inevitable frictions as No 1 were taken to heart. But he opened up to us, reached us. The relationship is still so good: he messaged me yesterday with some bands to listen to. And I doubt I\u2019ll ever come across someone so capable in football terms. It\u2019s amazing how many solutions he gives you on the pitch. Seeing him and Andoni in the Champions League<\/a> doesn\u2019t surprise. They have no limits; we\u2019re just grateful that two monsters coached us.\u201d<\/p>\n Their paths had separated, but the courses set were similar, the styles too. \u201cMy football belongs to Andoni,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. Chaos still reigned many miles away and only a phone call apart. Iraola took Bournemouth to Europe<\/a> for the first time; P\u00e9rez achieved Rayo\u2019s first European qualification<\/a>, and led them to the only final<\/a> in their history. This summer greater challenges awaited, so here they are at Anfield, where there is relief that a friend\u2019s career was not ruined but rather launched. \u201cI am so, so happy for I\u00f1igo,\u201d one staffer says, \u201cbecause you want good things to happen to good people and he\u2019s very, very good people.\u201d<\/p>\n They will watch in Bilbao, where it all began. \u201cIt\u2019s special: I\u2019m so proud of them,\u201d says L\u00f3pez. Gurpegui says: \u201cI\u00f1igo suffered in England but that situation opened another opportunity and now look: Andoni at Anfield. Bloody hell, I\u2019m so pleased, because they\u2019re two incredible people: humble, always there when you need them. Football needs more people like that.\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez adds: \u201cAnd knowing them, it will be fun too: bold, brave football, a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n Iraola says: \u201cThese games aren\u2019t good for your relationship. We usually talk a lot but when you\u2019re facing each other you talk less. It\u2019s a special game because he\u2019s my friend. He knows me very well. We\u2019ve been through a lot together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On I\u00f1igo P\u00e9rez\u2019s first day as a head coach he took a call from Andoni Iraola, just as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792495934_166_500.jpg\")
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