On Iñigo Pérez’s first day as a head coach he took a call from Andoni Iraola, just as he had every day for months. They had known each other for 22 years, lived in the same residency, come through the same academy and played in the same team; they had worked side by side, manager and assistant, and embarked on an adventure together. Now, though, Pérez was having to go it alone.
At 36, he had become what his friend thought he would be from the moment they met, just not so soon. Now he is off to Anfield. It’s funny the way it goes.
Had he not been denied a work permit by the Home Office, had a Football Association panel not declared him incapable of contributing to English football, a partnership broken and a family turned back, a career seemingly derailed from the start, Villarreal’s manager wouldn’t be sitting on the bench to the left of the halfway line at Anfield tonight. He would be sitting on the bench to the right. This time, the man who should have been Iraola’s assistant is instead his opponent, nothing given for 90 minutes.
When the referee blows, it all ends, but it’s a very nice story.” The story starts in 2002, when Pérez arrived at Athletic Club Bilbao’s academy, aged 14. Iraola was 19, six months from his first‑team debut. They first played together in the first team in October 2009 but, teenagers and tenants, something had already drawn them together and would do again.
If Pérez was more open, Iraola more private, timid even, there was much they shared: an inquisitive mind, an ability to observe and listen, a humility befitting a club where presumptuousness is prohibited. We played [Fantasy Football] and Andoni always won,” the goalkeeper Raúl Fernández recalls. If that gave them natural leadership, it was worn lightly, not imposed.
As one coach notes: “If everyone was going left and Andoni said: ‘Go right,’ they’d all be like: ‘Yeah, yeah, go right!’ They are two unusually intelligent guys, always rationalising, able to reach others.” Iraola saw it in the kid coming through, ideas explored together. Ever since I knew Iñigo, I thought he had the personality to be a coach. In fact, he had a clearer idea about being a coach than I did.” David López, who played alongside them, says: “It’s no surprise they became coaches.” Eneko Bóveda, who came through the academy with Pérez, says: “They might have become coaches individually; together, they were bound to.
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