The management of Real Madrid has decided to dismiss the head coach Julen Lopetegui. This became known from the official statement published on the website of the Spanish club.

“The team should make significant changes, while the goals set for the current season are still achievable. The Board of Directors came to the conclusion that the results and the game of the team, eight football players of which were nominated for the Golden Ball in 2018, do not meet the requirements. We would like to thank Lopetega and all members of his coaching staff for their work and wish them good luck in their future career, ”the statement says.

According to the press service of Real Madrid, Santiago Solari, former Madrid midfielder, who led Castilla, will be acting as mentor. The Argentinian will begin work on Tuesday. Earlier, the main candidate for this position was called Italian Antonio Conte, but negotiations with him were not crowned with success.

Lopetegi was the mentor of the Madrid club from June 2018, becoming the successor of the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane. The previous place of his work was the Spanish national team, but the specialist was dismissed from the national team one day before the start of the World Cup in Russia. It was reported that the reason for this was the desire of a mentor to head the coaching staff of Real Madrid. The club the next day announced the conclusion of a three-year contract with Lopetegi. Then this news was received by many football players with great enthusiasm.

Nevertheless, the changes that have taken place have not yielded the results that the cream fans expected. The team running Lopetegi set up their first anti-record in the UEFA Super Cup match. Atlético de Madrid scored four goals against Keylor Navas. This did not happen with any of the predecessors of the Spanish mentor.

In the championship of Spain, the case of “Real” from the very start, too, did not go the best way. By the ninth round of La Liga, in which the team was defeated by the “Levante” with a score of 1: 2, their goalless series consisted of four matches, about seven hours of pure time.

Despite the relatively successful performance of the Madrid in the Champions League, failures in the domestic arena continued. The last straw for the leadership was the defeat with a score of 1: 5 from the main rival - “Barcelona”. After that, “Real” dropped to the tenth line in the national championship (this was not the case for the team for 17 years) and installed several other anti-records at once. For example, for the first time in the last 70 years, the capital team has no positive difference in goals scored and missed, and for the first time since 2002, it could not score points in four guest matches in a row.

However, one of the possible reasons for the dismissal of a mentor was not only unsatisfactory results that did not correspond to ambitions, but also internal differences. Former club president Ramon Calderon urged not to blame Lopetegi and his coaching staff for all the failures. In his opinion, the team should not have sold the attacker Cristiano Ronaldo, who in August joined Juventus Turin.

“Unfortunately, his dismissal is another whim of President Florentino Perez. If a specialist was the right person for a team just four months ago, he cannot just become unusable. The leadership signed him just two days before the start of the World Cup, which did harm to the Spanish national team, and now fired him. That is the problem, ”Fourfourtwo portal quotes a functionary.

Under the leadership of Lopetegi Real Madrid spent only 14 matches. For 89 years, only one mentor of Madrid was able to hold out on his post less time. In 2004, Antonio Camacho was dismissed after six matches since his appointment.

Despite the ambiguity of the situation, Lopetegi found the strength to express gratitude to the leadership of the team.

“I would like to thank the club for the opportunity. Thanks to the players and staff of the club for their efforts and work, as well as consistently good attitude towards me. Of course, thanks to the fans for their support. And I convey my best wishes to the club for the remainder of the season, ”the Marca specialist quotes.