MADRID — Real Madrid hired Rafa Benitez as coach Wednesday, giving him a three-year contract as the replacement for the fired Carlo Ancelotti.
Benitez, who began his coaching career in Madrid’s youth academy, had returned to the Spanish league, where he led Valencia to titles in 2002 and 2004 before joining Liverpool, where he won the 2005 UEFA Champions League.
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“It’s an emotional day, one when I return here, to my home,” Benitez said at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. “I hope things will go well and that we win many titles.”
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Madrid said Benitez was the right choice because he understood the values that underpin the club and what it meant to be part of it.
“He is a product of this house,” the club said in a statement, detailing how 55-year-old Benitez played as a defender in youth teams and “began his coaching career here.”
Ancelotti guided Madrid to its 10th European Cup in 2014, but he was let go after the team failed to win a major trophy this season.
“Today we begin a new phase with the full conviction that the arrival of our new coach will strengthen us,” Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said, introducing Benitez as “a man who breathes football, professionalism and the very ethos of our club.”
Perez highlighted Benitez’s ability to communicate with players and his habit of making detailed preparations of each game.
Benitez is Madrid’s eighth coach in 10 years. He will be tasked with ending Madrid’s dismal record of one Spanish title in seven seasons despite counting on Cristiano Ronaldo and record revenues.
Madrid finished two points behind Barcelona in the Spanish league and lost to Juventus in the Champions League semifinals.
Benitez will need to grapple with three problems that dogged Ancelotti in his final season: Find a way to rise above Barcelona, win the Champions League and get the best out of Madrid’s star-studded squad.
Thumbnail photo via Andres Kudacki/Associated Press
