Category: football

Huddersfield Town have confirmed Carlos Corberan as their new head coach.

The club sacked Danny Cowley on Sunday, received permission from West Yorkshire neighbours Leeds United to speak to their highly-rated first-team coach and under-23 supremo earlier this week.

A compensation deal was subsequently thrashed out and now that the 2019-20 regular season is out of the way and Corberan’s commitments with Leeds are over, Town have moved swiftly to announce the appointment of the 37-year-old.

Corberan’s assistants will be named ‘in due course.’

Valencia-born Corberan joined Leeds in 2017, initially as under-23 coach.

His side won the Professional Development League in 2018-19 with the Spaniard also promoted to first-team coach to work under Marcelo Bielsa last season.

Corberan turned down the chance to manage Spanish side Cultural Leonesa last summer.

Huddersfield chairman Phil Hodkingson stated that Town were looking ‘for a different vision for the way we operate the club’ following the surprise decision to axe Cowley, shortly after the club confirmed their Championship safety following a 2-1 victory over West Brom last Friday.

Tellingly, Huddersfield added that they were not accepting applications, indicating that they already had a candidate in mind to replace Cowley.

On the decision to plump for Corberan, Town’s Head of Football Operations Leigh Bromby explained: “We are very happy to be able to welcome Carlos as our new head coach today, in what is undoubtedly a very important appointment for Huddersfield Town.

“After two difficult seasons, we have put a lot of thought and work into what we want to be and how we operate moving forward.

“Obviously, we need to return to winning games, and to be successful we must have all areas of the club aligned in the way we work. We want to return to the ‘No Limits’ mentality that served this club so well back in 2017. We must start believing in ourselves and our people once again; players and staff alike.

“Carlos was our ideal candidate for our new head coach from the outset, as his idea of football is completely aligned with ours.

“He is very strong on the need for a team to have a strength of identity on the pitch; a way of playing that leaves players in no doubt on their roles when they step foot onto the grass. He believes in a high energy, high intensity, attacking style of play.

“He is a coach whose focus is on working to improve players. Like us, he has a real belief in young players too, and desire to work with them to help them thrive.

“He’s incredibly passionate about this opportunity, and he has real belief in himself. He’s determined to bring success back to Huddersfield Town.”

Corberan began his career in the setup at Spanish giants Valencia, taking responsibility for the training methodology in their Academy before quickly progressing to work with the first team under the likes of Unai Emery and Manuel Pellegrini during the Club’s run to the Europa League semi-finals.

Under the recommendation of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, Carlos then travelled overseas to become assistant head coach at Saudi Arabian clubs Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr, where he gained experiences in the Asian Champions League.

Corberan’s first experiences as a head coach followed in Cyprus, where he took charge of Doxa Katokopia and then Ermis Aradippou, who he steered to safety in the division.

Through his work at the prestigious Aspire Academy in Qatar, he then joined Leeds ahead of the 2017-18 campaign.