The Spaniard’s appointment was confirmed on Saturday, with six of his staff arriving in the West Midlands this week, before beginning work at Compton Park officially on Monday 14th November.
Part of that new team is long-serving assistant head coach Pablo Sanz, who has worked alongside Lopetegui at various roles over the past eight years, including during his most recent spell at Sevilla.
Sanz enjoyed a playing career as a midfielder for Rayo Vallecano, having been on Barcelona’s books with Lopetegui, and later linked up with him at Porto, before the duo continued working together at Spain, Real Madrid and most recently Sevilla.
Along with Sanz, Lopetegui is also followed from Sevilla by assistant coach Juan Peinado, who has worked in coaching since 2002, including within Real Madrid and Villarreal’s academies, before he joined Lopetegui at Sevilla in July 2019.
Fitness coach Oscar Caro has also swapped Andalusia for the West Midlands. Having started his career in fitness coaching 2008, Caro has served under Lopetegui since 2016 at Spain, Real Madrid and Sevilla.
First-team coach Edu Rubio has coached in England for the past 15 years, working at MK Dons, Chelsea, Crawley Town and Crystal Palace, before most recently serving as West Ham United Women’s assistant manager this season.
The UEFA pro licence coach was assistant manager at Crawley and managed the MK Dons academy in recent years, giving him significant knowledge of the English game, while he provided tutoring for the Spanish FA, where he first met Lopetegui.
The experienced Fran Garagarza joins Wolves as a technical advisor on the back of 17 years at Spanish side SD Eibar, where he served as under-19 coach, assistant manager and academy director, before taking on the role of sporting director for ten years.
Over that decade, he oversaw the club’s greatest ever era, as Eibar won the Segunda Division for the first time in their history in 2014 and remained in La Liga for seven seasons, achieving their greatest ever finish of ninth in 2017/18.
Daniel Lopetegui is the sixth addition in the role of performance analyst. Lopetegui spent three years at UCFB Wembley studying football business and finance, before working on opposition analysis at MK Dons and player analysis for a leading football agency.
