Gaizka Garitano Aguirre

Garitano was born in Bilbao, Basque Country. Grown through the ranks of Athletic Bilbao, he would never make it past the reserves, his sole first-team appearance being as a late substitute in a UEFA Cup win away to Sampdoria in 1997. He also served loans at Lleida and Eibar. In the summer of 1999, Garitano joined Segunda División B team Ourense. He finally settled at Eibar in the Segunda División – his second spell – and, in the 2004–05 season, as captain, led the side to a fourth place in the league, with chances of a historic La Liga promotion until the last matchday. Garitano made his first top-flight appearances with Real Sociedad at the age of 30, his debut coming on 27 August 2005 in a 3–0 away defeat in the Basque derby. After three seasons in San Sebastián, during which the club was relegated in 2007, he joined neighbours Alavés, retiring in June 2009 at 34 after their relegation to the third division.

Eibar

Immediately after retiring, having appeared in more than 300 matches in Spain's second tier, Garitano moved into coaching, serving as assistant at also recently-relegated Eibar. After a stint in charge of the reserves he was appointed first-team manager for the 2012–13 campaign, which included the elimination of Athletic Bilbao – the previous year's finalists – from the Copa del Rey, and ended with promotion. Garitano repeated the feat the following season, topping the table and leading Eibar to the club's first ever top-division promotion. In June 2014, he renewed his contract. In 2014–15, the team collected 27 points from the first 19 games but, after only eight in the following 19, was finally relegated back in spite of a 3–0 home win over Córdoba in the last matchday (they would later be reinstated at the expense of Elche). Subsequently, Garitano presented his resignation, stating he did not merit to continue.

Valladolid and Deportivo

Garitano signed with Real Valladolid on 6 July 2015, replacing the fired Rubi. On 21 October, as the side ranked dead last, he was dismissed. On 10 June 2016, Garitano took over for Víctor Sánchez as Deportivo de La Coruña manager. Eight months later, with the team inside the relegation zone, he was sacked.

Athletic Bilbao

In summer 2017, Garitano was appointed head coach of Bilbao Athletic, replacing José Ángel Ziganda who had been promoted to the first team. He remained in that position until 4 December…

During his playing spell with Eibar, Garitano studied to become a journalist before beginning his sports coaching courses. He is the son of Angel Garitano (also known as 'Ondarru') who served for many years as assistant to Mané at managerial appointments including Alavés and Athletic Bilbao, and the nephew of former Athletic and Real Zaragoza midfielder Ander Garitano; they are distantly related to Juan Urquizu who also served Athletic as player and manager, while Gaizka's mother's family members include another man who performed both roles, Koldo Aguirre. Garitano is not related to fellow Basque manager Asier Garitano, who also had playing spells with Bilbao Athletic and Eibar.

Manager

Eibar

Segunda División: 2013–14