One of Spain's most experienced coaches, Javier Clemente was a promising young midfielder in the early 1970s before injury ended his career at a very early age. He went on to enjoy coaching success at domestic level in Spain and had managed several clubs, as well as spending several years as the coach of the Spanish national team.
Starting out with local team Barakaldo in 1967, Clemente moved to Athletic Bilbao a year later and quickly established himself in midfield. He played in the team that won the Spanish Cup in 1969, and also made appearances for the Spanish under-23 team. Just as it seemed that his career was really about to take off, he suffered a bad injury and was forced to retire from playing in 1973, the same year in which Bilbao won the Spanish Cup again.
Moving into a coaching career, Clemente became manager of Bilbao in 1981 and led the club to great success in the early 1980s. Under his management Bilbao won the Spanish League Championship in 1983, and the following season retained that title whilst also adding the Spanish Cup. Never quite able to reproduce that success, Clemente left Bilbao in 1986 to take over at Español and also had short spells with Atlético Madrid and back at Bilbao before becoming national coach in 1992.
Clemente led the Spanish national team to the World Cup finals in the U.S.A. in 1994, where they reached the quarter-finals before bowing out in controversial circumstances to eventual finalists Italy. Two years later, the team suffered another controversial defeat in a major quarter-final when beaten on penalties by hosts England in the European Championship, having had a goal disallowed.
Clemente's final major championship with the national team was the 1998 World Cup in France, where Spain started out amongst the favourites but lost their opening match to Nigeria and by the time they recovered to beat Bulgaria 6-1 it was too late. Spain crashed out in the first round, and Clemente left the job later that year. Since leaving the national team, he has coached several Spanish clubs as well as Olympique de Marseille in France.
