Luis Zubeldía

Luis Zubeldía
	Zubeldía with LDU Quito in 2015
Personal information
Full name	Luis Francisco Zubeldía
Date of birth	13 January 1981 (age 41)
Place of birth	Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team
1998–2004	Lanús
National team
1997	Argentina U17
1999–2001	Argentina U20
Teams managed
2008–2010	Lanús
2011–2012	Barcelona SC
2012–2013	Racing Club
2013–2015	LDU Quito
2015–2016	Santos Laguna
2016–2017	Independiente Medellín
2017	Alavés
2018	Cerro Porteño
2018–2021	Lanús
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Luis Francisco Zubeldía (Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina; born 13 January 1981) is an Argentine football manager and former player.

A former midfielder, Zubeldía's career was mainly associated to Club Atlético Lanús, where he played as a senior and managed the club in two different spells. He was known for being the youngest person to be in charge of an Argentine first division professional soccer team.

Playing career[]

Club[]

Zubeldía debuted at Club Atlético Lanús on 30 October 1998 with a draw at home by 2 goals against Independiente. He made 57 appearances, scoring 3 goals. In 2004, he retired from football at 23 years of age due to a osteochondritis dissecans of his knee.

International[]

He played for the U-17 and U-20 Argentina selections. He was part of the Argentine squad at the South American and and the . He was also part of the South American Under-20 Championship 2001. That same year, days before the start of the Under-20 that was organized in Argentina, he suffered an injury on the left knee.

Managing career[]

Club Atlético Lanús (1st cycle)[]

In June 2008, Zubeldia was announced as manager of Lanús, replacing Ramón Cabrero, at the age of 27, making him the youngest coach in the history of . After leading the team to fourth place in the Torneo Apertura 2008 and qualifying 2009 Copa Libertadores, Lanús ended in third place. Under his technical leadership, Lanus finished the 2008/2009 season as the best team, with a total of 75 points. So far, this is the best record in club history. On 15 November, he left the team.

Barcelona SC[]

On 23 June 2011, he was hired to direct the Barcelona Sporting Club with a contract for 18 months until the end of 2012. On 8 April 2012, after a 1–1 tie against Liga de Quito, the president of Barcelona, , entered the dressing rooms, having a strong discussion with the young coach. After discussion, the next day Luis Zubeldía gave a press conference announcing his irrevocable resignation to Barcelona, which stated:

"The president made a comment that I believe was disoriented, I did everything possible not to react, but I reacted as any person of character would have reacted. It did not escalate, but respect was broken. Leaving that to the side and not being ego-centric, I choose to step aside for the benefit of the institution, because if the coach and the trainer don't respect each other, there's no project that could work. I would have liked to be in the photo of the winner of the stage, I wish the best to the next trainer, who has the most important thing, the raw materials."

His replacement was his compatriot Gustavo Costas. At the end of 2012, Barcelona was crowned Ecuadorian Serie A Champion after almost 15 years. Zubeldía was recognized for his role in putting together the team that won the championship.^[1]

Racing Club De Avellaneda[]

In the middle of , Zubeldía took over the technical direction of Racing Club de Avellaneda replacing Alfio Basile, accompanied by the same body technician in his previous teams: Snapper Maximilian as adjutant and Pablo Sanchez as a trainer. The group led by Zubeldía managed to reach the end of the , after his team beat penalties to River Plate, being Saja the hot-shot. In the end, Racing lost 2–1 against Boca Juniors.

Luis Zubeldía took hold in the first team several youth of the lower, as Ricardo Centurion, Rodrigo De Paul, Luis Fariña and Luciano Vietto. In Racing achieved the best season the club in short matches from the championship got "Mostaza" Merlo in (42 points). Racing finished in fifth place with a total of 33 points, won 9 games, 6 draws, and 4 defeats, with 26 goals for and 12 against. In the final tournament in 2013, Racing achieved sixth place with 8 games won, tied 5, and lost 6 with 24 goals for and 17 against. Because of these two seasons, Zubledía's team ends up being the highlight of the past 12 seasons. On 25 August 2013, he was dismissed by the leadership due to a bad start to the season.

Liga de Quito[]

After the departure of manager Edgardo Bauza from Liga de Quito, the leader of the club decided to hire the strategist Luis Francisco Zubeldía as a replacement to lead the 2014 season. On 18 January, the Argentine made his presentation during the "Noche Blanca" presentation match against América de Cali, winning the match 3–0. The start of the 2014 season had a surplus balance the participation of several young players on the professional staff as Luis Cangá, Jefferson Intriago, , and Francisco Cevallos. These players, plus more experienced players, made Liga de Quito qualify for the Copa Sudamericana 2015 a goal set at the beginning of the year. After rumors that Luis Zubeldia would be hired by Leon of Mexico, the Argentine decided to renew for another year for the Quito institution.

In 2015, Liga de Quito became the winner of the first stage of Ecuadorian Serie A with 47 points after earning a record of 21 unbeaten dates. Thus, he qualified for the 2015 tournament finals and won the qualification for the 2016 Copa Libertadores. After his team classified first in the regular phase with 89 points in 44 games, one point ahead of Club Sport Emelec, they played the final of the Ecuadorian Serie A 2015 with two home and away matches against Club Sport Emelec on 16 and 20 December, obtaining the sub championship after losing 1–3 and 0–0 draw against Emelec in Portoviejo and Quito, respectively, which closed his cycle in the team from the capital of Ecuador.

Santos Laguna[]

On 28 November 2015, Zubeldía announced that he would go to Santos Laguna once he completed the Ecuadorian tournament with Liga de Quito to of Mexican tournament. This statement made a few players upset since the team could be the champion without having to play against Emelec. In the last matches, there weren't good results and Liga de Quito didn't manage to become champion and lost the finals against the other team. In his debut, he achieved a very good performance by placing the team within the last eight of the Liga MX. The team also reached the semi-finals of the Champions League FA Cup, being eliminated by the Americans after dramatic overtime. During the period of preparation in the United States, Santos achieved the Socio Cup Mx, conquering Pumas and later the mighty Cruz Azul. On 15 August 2016, it was surprisingly dismissed by leadership, due to a bad start to the season.

Independiente Medellín[]

He was presented as the new technical director of the Deportivo Independiente Medellín on 14 December 2016 as a replacement of Leonel Álvarez for 2017. There were challenges like participating directly on the groups' stage in the Copa Libertadores de América, besides the Liga Águila, the Superliga Ágila and the Copa Águila. He resigned on 6 July 2017.

Deportivo Alavés[]

His arrival to Spain was made official on 17 June 2017 as the new trainer of the Deportivo Alavés. He only signed for one season as a replacement to Mauricio Pellegrino. He was fired on 17 September after losing the first 4 matches of the Liga.

Cerro Porteño[]

On 3 February 2018, Luis Zebeldía signs a whole year as a trainer for (at the moment) Paraguayan champion Club Cerro Porteño in replacement of the Colombian Leonel Álvarez, who resigned after some differences with the director of the club.

Club Atlético Lanús (2nd cycle)[]

Zubeldía returned to Lanús on 3 September 2018, replacing Ezequiel Carboni as coach.

Personal life[]

He is the brother of trainer Gustavo Zubeldía and former soccer player Juan Zubeldía.

Managerial statistics[]

As of 12 December 2021

As a player[]


Club	Country	Year	Part	Goals
Lanús	Argentina	1998–2004	57	3

As a trainer[]


Club	Country	Year
Lanús	Argentina	2008–2010
Barcelona	Ecuador	2011–2012
Racing	Argentina	2012–2013
Liga de Quito	Ecuador	2014–2015
Santos Laguna	Mexico	2016
Independiente Medellín	Colombia	2017
Deportivo Alavés	Spain	2017
Cerro Porteño	Paraguay	2018
Lanús	Argentina	2018 – 2021

Managerial record by team and tenure
Team	Nat	From	To	Record
Team	Nat	From	To	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Lanús		15 June 2008	14 November 2010	105	48	27	30	145	128	+17	045.71
Barcelona		23 June 2011	10 April 2012	32	16	9	7	43	27	+16	050.00
Racing Club		16 April 2012	25 August 2013	60	22	14	24	69	64	+5	036.67
Liga de Quito		31 December 2013	20 December 2015	96	47	29	20	135	86	+49	048.96
Santos Laguna		22 December 2015	16 August 2016	34	12	9	13	44	40	+4	035.29
Independiente Medellín		14 December 2016	6 June 2017	28	17	3	8	47	36	+11	060.71
Alavés		17 June 2017	17 September 2017	4	0	0	4	0	7	−7	000.00
Cerro Porteño		5 February 2018	20 August 2018	36	25	8	3	69	36	+33	069.44
Lanús		3 September 2018	present	122	53	28	41	181	166	+15	043.44
Total				517	240	127	150	733	597	+136	046.42