West Ham United have confirmed the appointment of head coach Julen Lopetegui as successor to David Moyes.
Former Real Madrid and Spain coach Lopetegui will officially join West Ham from 1 July after they finished the 2023/24 season in ninth spot with 52 points.
“I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big club,” Lopetegui told West Ham TV. “We will try to put our stamp on the club.
“I feel that we have a fantastic platform. I think the last few years have been very good years to have this base, of course, but my ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims and to encourage and improve the players, the team, and to compete because football is about this – to compete. We are very ambitious about this.
“I feel very happy to be part of the future of this big Club”
— West Ham United (@WestHam) May 23, 2024
Listen to Lopetegui’s first words as Head Coach of West Ham United 🗣️
“I am where I want to be. I am here because I want to be here and for us it was a fantastic day when we closed our agreement here because our commitment is 100 per cent to be here. We had other opportunities but I am very happy that West Ham chose me because I chose West Ham too, so we are really happy about this.
“We came here with the idea and the thought to make a big, big noise. That's why we came here, and we are excited by this challenge. Of course, we are going to do our best to help the club and the team to achieve the best level and to achieve our aims. I assure the fans that they are going to be key in all our achievements.”
Technical director Tim Steitden added: “Julen lives and breathes football. He thinks deeply about the game, he is tactically astute and he has shown he can adapt to work in different leagues, in different countries, with national teams, and in each situation he has shown his outstanding qualities.
"Julen is highly experienced in the way we will now work at West Ham United and I am looking forward to working with him to grow a successful future for the club.”
Lopetegui's return
This will be the 57-year-old's second spell in the Premier League, having been at Wolverhampton Wanderers from November 2022 to August 2023, when he left due to differences of opinion.
Wolves had been bottom of the Premier League when Lopetegui joined, but the Spaniard won his first match in charge at Everton, and went on to lead them to a 13th-place finish.
Prior to his spell at Molineux, he was manager of Sevilla, leading them into the UEFA Champions League and winning the Europa League in 2019/20.
Before that he was head coach of Real Madrid and, prior to that, spent two years as manager of the Spain national team, a position he held after impressing in a two-year stint at Porto.
As a player, the former Real Madrid and Barcelona goalkeeper was also capped once by Spain.
He will be joined by assistant head coach Pablo Sanz, head of performance and assistant coach Oscar Caro, head of analysis and assistant coach Juan Vicente Peinado, fitness coach Borja De Alba and technical coach Edu Rubio. Xavi Valero will continue is his role as goalkeeper coach.
Lopetegui will meet West Ham's players for the first time when they return for pre-season training in early July. He will then take the Hammers to the USA later that month for a couple of pre-season matches, meeting his former club Wolves in his first game in charge, followed by London rivals Crystal Palace.
