Juanma Lillo said goodbye to Manchester City, where he worked as Pep Guardiola’s second coach, to set course for Qatar to direct Al-Sadd, as the entity has made public.
The Spanish coach, who led Millonarios in Colombia in 2014 and Atlético Nacional in 2017, arrived at City in June 2020 and has been an active part of the successes of the English club, with two Premier Leagues and one League Cup, in addition to the first Champions League final that the sky-blue team played in 2021 against Chelsea.
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Lillo, grateful to Manchester City
“My time at Manchester City has been one of the best of my career,” Lillo told City media. “Working alongside Pep, with his coaching staff and with this group of players has been a pleasure and I hope I have been able to contribute my grain of sand to the success we have had on the pitch”.
“Working alongside Pep, with his coaching staff and with this group of players has been a pleasure and I hope I have been able to contribute my grain of sand to the success we have had on the pitch”.
“I wish the club the best and I hope they can achieve everything they set out to do,” added Lillo.
For his part, Txiki Begiristain, sporting director of City, assured that Juanma has been “an integral part” of City’s results and that it has been “a pleasure” to work with him in the last two seasons.
“Everyone at Manchester City wishes him the best in his new adventure,” Begiristain added.
For its part, Al Sadd has already officially announced the signing of Lillo, replacing Javi Gracia, who was dismissed.
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Al Sadd’s announcement confirming Lillo’s arrival
“Juan Manuel Lillo will be the head coach of AlSadd from the 2022-23 season. He will arrive in Qatar on Sunday before being presented at a press conference later,” says the statement issued by the entity in the official account of its social networks.
In addition to Millonarios and Nacional, Lillo directed Cultural Leonesa, Salamanca, Real Oviedo, Tenerife, Zaragoza, Ciudad de Murcia, Tarrasa, Real Sociedad and Almería, in his country, Dorados de Sinaloa, in Mexico, and Vissel Kobe and Takayuki Yoshida , in Japan.
Lillo occupies the position that until last Wednesday belonged to his compatriot Javi Gracia, who came to the Al Sadd bench as a substitute for the also Spanish Xavi Hernández, current coach of Barcelona.
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