Rising coach at Athletic Club decides to call time on management at the age of 43

Bilbao Athletic manager Carlos Gurpegui, the B team for Athletic Club, looks set to leave management after just three years in coaching.

Gurpegui, 43, spent 15 seasons at Athletic as a player, and after working as an ambassador for Los Leones, went into coaching in 2021, before taking over affiliate club Baskonia. He would spend two good seasons there, before moving on to Bilbao Athletic, where this season he authored an historic campaign.

This season they have secured promotion to Primera RFEF (third tier), after a season in which they have collected 82 points from 34 games, losing just twice all season. Athletic offered him a new deal, as per Marca, but Gurpegui has decided to turn down the offer. He has decided after  a period of reflection that he does not want to continue in coaching. Well-liked due to his honesty, Gurpegui appears to have simply decided that he does not enjoy the job enough to continue.

While Athletic will be hoping Ernesto Valverde remains in the job as long as possible, there will no doubt be some reticence that perhaps a readymade replacement for El Txingurri will no longer be in situ, bearing in mind Gurpegui also played under Valverde.