Mauricio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino ( born March 2, 1972 in Murphy, Santa Fe ) is a former Argentine football player and current coach.

Career

Association

Pochettino began his career at Newell 's Old Boys. In 1994 he moved to Europe to Espanyol. There he was at first team regular and in 2000 was able to celebrate winning the Copa del Rey. However, in the same year he left the club in the direction of France, where he hired at Paris SG. In 2003 he reached the final of the Coupe de France, which was lost to AJ Auxerre 1-2. During the summer break, he moved to league rivals Girondins Bordeaux, however, where his stint lasted only half series. In the winter he returned to Espanyol, where he ended his career in 2006.

National

Pochettino also played between 2000 and 2002 20 times for the Argentine national team. He took part with her at the 2002 World Cup.

Coach

At the beginning of 2009, the President of Espanyol, Daniel Sánchez Llibre, announced that Pochettino successor of José Manuel Esnal ( " Mane " ) is as head coach of the club.

Despite his lack of experience as a trainer succeeded Espanyol Pochettino to protect them from the seemingly inevitable descent and managed the team after five months on the relegation zone at the end to lead even to the tenth place in the table. Under his leadership, the team developed steadily and was in the course of the season to one of the most successful in the league. In the following seasons, he was able to establish itself in the middle of the league the club again.

On November 26, 2012 his contract with Espanyol was dissolved by mutual consent. This was due to the poor start to the season 2012/13. Espanyol finished with just nine points from 13 games the last place.

On January 18, 2013 Pochettino was introduced to the English first division club FC Southampton as successor to the sacked coach Nigel Adkins.