Unai Emery

Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish football manager and former player who is the manager of the Premier League club Aston Villa.

In 2002, he signed for Burgos but was one of several players released before making a single competitive appearance due to lack of funds.

After a career spent playing mostly in Spain's Segunda División, Emery transitioned into coaching after retiring in 2004.

He began at Lorca Deportiva, where he achieved promotion to the Segunda División in his first season.

He then joined Almería, whom he led to promotion to La Liga for the first time in the club's history.

He subsequently moved to Valencia, leading the team to top-three finishes.

Emery suffered a serious knee injury while at Lorca in the 2004–05 season, and he was offered the vacant coach's position by the club president.

He immediately helped the club achieve promotion to the second division for the first time in its history, as well as beating top-level side Málaga in the Copa del Rey.

He was subsequently awarded the Miguel Muñoz Trophy as coach of the season.

In his second season, the Murcians' first ever in the second division, the team finished fifth with 69 points, only five points off promotion to the top flight; they suffered relegation in 2007, after Emery's departure.

Emery then moved to Almería in division two, and again helped his squad overachieve: after guiding them to a first ever promotion in 2007, the Andalusian side finished eighth in La Liga in 2007–08.

This prompted a move to Valencia, where he succeeded Ronald Koeman as coach.

In 2008–09, his first season with Los Che, Emery led them to a sixth-place finish, with subsequent qualification to the UEFA Europa League, in spite of the club's serious financial problems.

The team reached the Round of 32 in the UEFA Cup, losing on away goals after a 3–3 aggregate draw against Dynamo Kyiv, and the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, exiting against Sevilla.

In 2009–10, Emery led Valencia to third place, so the club returned to the UEFA Champions League after two years.

After dropping down to Europa League (previously known as UEFA Cup), they lost in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Atlético Madrid on away goals, and exited in the round of 16 in the Copa del Rey against Deportivo La Coruña, losing 4–3 on aggregate.

In May 2010, Emery renewed his contract for another year.

2010–11 started without David Villa and David Silva, sold to Barcelona and Manchester City respectively.

Despite this, Valencia won five out of the first six league games (with one draw), starting the Champions League campaign with a 4–0 win in Turkey against Bursaspor, before being eliminated in the round of 16 by Schalke 04, and being knocked out in the same stage in the Copa del Rey by Villarreal.

In the domestic league, the side finished third, thus again qualifying for the Champions League.

In 2011–12, Emery's side entered the Champions League and were paired with Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk.

They finished third in their group and subsequently entered the Europa League.

After leaving Valencia, he coached Spartak Moscow for six months, before moving to Sevilla in 2013.

At Sevilla, Emery won an unprecedented three consecutive Europa Leagues, and moved to French club Paris Saint-Germain in 2016.

There, he won a Ligue 1 title, two Coupe de France titles, two Coupe de la Ligues, and two Trophée des Champions, which included a domestic quadruple in his second season.

After the expiry of his contract, Emery was appointed as head coach of English club Arsenal in 2018, succeeding Arsène Wenger.

He finished Europa League runner-up in his first season, before being dismissed in November 2019.

He was hired by Villarreal in July 2020, where he won the Europa League in his first season and guided the club to a Champions League semi-final run in the following season.

In October 2022, he left Villarreal and returned to the Premier League to manage Aston Villa and guided them to qualification for the UEFA Conference League.

Emery was born in Hondarribia, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country.

He is a native speaker of the Basque language.

His father and grandfather, named Juan and Antonio respectively, were also footballers, both goalkeepers.

The former appeared for several clubs in the second tier including Real Unión, while the latter competed with that club in the top division.

Emery's uncle, Román, played as a midfielder.

In July 2021, the Emery family completed a takeover of Real Unión, and his brother Igor became club president.

Emery's wife is Luisa Fernández.

Their son Lander, also a goalkeeper, joined Aston Villa's under-21 team in January 2024.

Emery, a left-sided midfielder, was a youth graduate of Real Sociedad, but never really broke into the first team (aged 24 he appeared in five La Liga games, scoring against Albacete in an 8–1 home win).

After that, he resumed his career mostly in the Segunda División, amassing totals of 215 matches and nine goals over seven seasons.

He retired with Lorca Deportiva at the age of 32, after one season in Segunda División B.