Quique Setién

Early career

Setién began working as a manager on 5 October 2001, succeeding the dismissed Gustavo Benítez at a Racing side that had started poorly following relegation to Segunda División. He took the team from 17th to promotion as runners-up to Atlético, but left at the end of the season due to pressure and handed the reins to his former teammate Manuel Preciado. For the 2003–04 campaign, Setién returned to the second division with Polideportivo Ejido. He was dismissed on 17 November, with the team in the relegation zone. In 2005, Setién was appointed assistant coach to the Russia national beach soccer team. For three months during the following year, he was in charge of Equatorial Guinea. After that he moved to another team he played for, Logroñes in division three, being relieved of his duties midway through the 2007–08 campaign.

Lugo

In June 2009, Setién became Lugo's coach. He led the side to promotion to the second tier in his third year, a second-ever for the Galicians. In the following three years, they managed to stay afloat, ranking between positions 11th and 15th.

Las Palmas

On 19 October 2015, following the dismissal of Paco Herrera, Setién became the new manager of Las Palmas in the top flight. He arrived with them in the relegation zone, and led them to 11th place in his first season. On 18 March 2017, Setién announced that he would leave the Canary Islands club at the end of the campaign due to disputes with the board.

Betis…

Born in Santander, Setién made his La Liga debut in 1977, with his hometown club Racing de Santander. During his first spell with the Cantabrians, although he played regularly, he was not yet a regular starter, and he missed the entire 1982–83 season as well as being relegated twice. Afterwards, Setién represented Atlético Madrid for three years. He enjoyed a good first two seasons, but appeared rarely in his last after some spats with elusive club chairman Jesús Gil. Setién then moved to Logroñés in 1988 where, after a slow start, he was essential in helping the Riojans retain their top-tier status. The 34-year-old returned to Racing in 1992, and scored a career-best 11 goals in the first year in his second spell as the side returned to the top flight. He played three more years with the latter, and retired in June 1996 at nearly 38 after featuring for Levante in the Segunda División B play-offs, which also ended in promotion. In 2001, Setién was voted by Racing's fans as their best player of all time. He appeared in almost 600 official matches in nearly two decades of play, totalling 95 league goals.

Setién appeared three times for Spain and was selected for the 1986 FIFA World Cup squad, but did not leave the bench during the tournament in Mexico. His debut came on 20 November 1985 in a 0–0 friendly with Austria, in Zaragoza.

Setién's son, Laro, is also a footballer and a midfielder. His father-in-law José Antonio Lozano played in the Spanish second tier in the early 1960s, and all three relatives represented Racing Santander. In addition to his native Spanish, he also speaks English and Italian. Setién is a keen chess player with a FIDE rating of 1965. He played matches against former world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, the results of which were not made public. He mentioned the game as an influence on his football tactics, which prioritised possession and midfield domination. Before being Barcelona manager, Setién lived in Liencres, 9 km west of Santander, where there are a lot of cows; hence, he commented: "Yesterday I was walking past cows in my home town; today I was at Barcelona's training ground coaching the best players in the world, an enormous club". In April 2020, in an interview with TV3, he talked about winning La Liga and Champions League titles, when he said: "If it can be both, better. And of course I have dreamed of walking around Liencres with the cows while holding up the Champions League trophy and showing it to them."