Manuel Pellegrini Biography

His full name is Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti is a Chilean former football player and current football manager of Manchester City team; Pellegrini was born in September 16, 1953 in Santiago.

Pellegrini managed teams in Chile, Argentine, and Spain, he started his coaching career after retiring from playing football, where he coached in Chile to move then to Argentine, finally in 2004 he moved to the La Liga to be the coach of Villarreal, which was a small team with notable history. Though he led them to achieve the third place in La Liga in the season 2004-2005 and to reach to the semi-final of the champions League in the 2005-2006 season, then he achieved the second place in La Liga and broke the domination of the two big teams on the two first places in La Liga in the season 2007-2008.

Pellegrini was attracted by Real Madrid according to his results with Villareal, though he signed with Real Madrid in 2009 to be the Manager of the team in 2009. He could to achieve with Real Madrid 96 points in La Liga but he lost the title by 3 points with Barcelona, though he replaced Real Madrid to make contract with Jose Mourinho in 2011-2012 seasons.

Pellegrini then moved to Malaga to sign with it in November 2010. He led the team to reach the fourth place in La Liga and to achieve their qualification for the champion’s league for the next season. So in the next season the team reached to the quarter final of the champions league in the 2012-2013 season , and thus Pellegrini becomes the first coach who led different teams to reach the quarter =finals of the champions league during his debut season in the competition.

Pellegrini signed with Manchester City ON June 14, 2013 after leaving Malaga in May 22, 2013.

Playing career:

Pellegrini played professionally as defender in Universidad de Chile; he appeared in the team with 451 games and had 7 goals in the Chilean Division 1. Pellegrini stayed with his team until 1984 when he decided to retire at the age of 33.

Managerial Career:

The early years of his coaching career:

Pellegrini coached in 1988 season the Universidad de Chile team but he compelled to leave the team in the middle of the season in order to take courses of couching career in Europe. His team was weak so he relegated to the division 2, but Pellegrini could in the next season of 1989 to lead them from achieving the champions of the division 2 and rising to the division 1.

He became the assistant of the head manager of the Chilean national football team who was Arturo Salah in 1990 in addition he became the head manager of team under 20-years. He signed with many teams in the Chilean League starting with Palestino, to move then to O’Higgins where he stayed there for one year to sign lastly with Universidad Catolica, which is one of the most popular football teams in Chile. Pellegrini led them to achieve the Copa Interamericana in 1994 -1995.

Then in 1999, Pellegrini took the management of Ecuadorian team, where he pushed the team and sported it to give him a good run in the Libertadores.

San Lorenzo:

Pellegrini signed with San Lorenzo de Almagro in 2001 leading them to achieve their first title in the Copa Mercosur. 

River Plate:

Pellegrini moved to River Plate in 2002 as stayed there until 2003 leading them to achieve the Clausura championship in 2003.

Villarreal:

Pellegrini moved to Spain in order to sign with Villarreal in July 1, 2004. Pellegrini pushed his new team Villarreal to achieve the third place in La Liga though they qualified for the champion’s league for the next year and also they reached to the quarter-final of the UEFA Cup. So in the 2005-2006 seasons Pellegrini led his team to reach to the semi-finals of the champion league losing in front Arsenal.

Villarreal finished the La Liga in the seventh place, but in the next two seasons, Pellegrini pushed them to reach to the fifth and second place of the La Liga which was historical achievement for Villarreal, though they reached again to the quarter –final of the champion’s league and they lost again in front of Arsenal 4-1.

According to the good performance and the best results of Villarreal under the management of Pellegrini, so they from 2007 decided to extend his contract until 2011, so he refused Real Madrid offer claiming that he has contract until 2011 but he signed with them in 2009, and Real Madrid enforced to pay his termination clause which costs € 4 million.

 Real Madrid:

Pellegrini signed with Real Madrid in June 2, 2009 a contract for two years. Pellegrini bought many players like Kaka from Milan , Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, Karim Benzema from Olympique Lyonnais, and Xavi Alonso from Liverpool.

Real Madrid was eliminated from the Copa Del Ray from the round 16 by team from the division B which was Alcorcon by 4-1 result.

Real Madrid achieved record 96 points in La Liga but it failed to won the title of the La Liga because its rival Barcelona ended the league with 99 points. This thing was led to sack Pellegrini and replaced by Jose Mourinho for the next season. They even lost in front of Lyon in the champion league from 16 round.

Malaga:

Pellegrini received an offer from the Mexican national team in July 2010, but he signed with Malaga a contract for three years, Malaga in the first season finished it in the 4^th place in La Liga with 58 points. So the team qualified for the champion league for the next year, it was the first time that Malaga qualifies for the champion league in its history. So Pellegrini led Malaga to reach to the semi-final place in the champion league but they lost in front of Borussia Dortmund in a crazy match where Borussia could win the match in the last three minutes scoring two goals to become the result 3-2.

Manchester City:

Pellegrini signed with Manchester City on May 30, 2013. So he becomes the first Chilean Coach who managed in the Primer League, and the fifth coach from outside of Europe to manage an English Team in the same league.