Unai Emery – Football as an obsession / Image via marca.com
It was a glorious night for Sevilla fans on Wednesday as their beloved club won their third straight Europa League title in an unprecedented achievement that will be forever written in golden letters in football history books.
Liverpool’s hopes of repeating the Istanbul scenario were extinguished by inspired Rojiblancos, who came back from the dead to be crowned kings of Europa League.
Their 3-1 triumph is just another confirmation of a thorough and dedicated work Sevilla players have been investing for months, years even and, even more importantly, hard and committed work from managerial staff lead by Unai Emery.
Sevilla boss is coming oming from a football family which played a big part in football being embedded in his DNA.
Unai Emery is a grandson to Antonio Emery who played for Real Union as a goalkeeper, just like Unai’s father – Juan – remembered as one of the shortest goalkeepers ever to play in Spain with his 173 cm.
Unai Emery himself was a midfielder. His organising skill have been demonstrated best through his incredible work at Sevilla, a club he has been in charge with since 2013.
Football as an Obsession
Those who know him often speak of his obsession.
Unai Emery does not hide that football is everything to him – passion and emotion. Meticulous in his match preparations, Unai Emery pays great attention to every single detail, with video presentations being the highlights of his work.
Emery does not employ a video analyst. Instead, he is making his compilations himself, cutting and editing footage to have his players fully prepared for challenges ahead.
“For every game, I might spend 12 hours just on the video. In an hour the players have to understand everything you’ve seen in 12”, he explains.
Coming from a football family, it doesn’t get too hard to understand his burning desire and passion for the beloved sport.
Hard Work Pays Off
Unai Emery has enjoyed three successful years with Sevilla, but Rojiblancos have had a problematic La Liga season with Emery’s position having been question in more than one occasion. Undeterred and undisturbed in his commitment to the club’s cause, Emery managed to turn the tables around and reach both Europa League and Copa Del Rey finals.
Numbers speak for themselves. Namely, Unai Emery has never lost a knockout with Sevilla in the Europa League. He led his team through 12 two-legged ties in the last three seasons, winning the competition in every single one of them.
Unay Emeri is a unique character in the footballing world and it could be said that he is perhaps undeservedly in the shadow of his colleagues that get more exposure in the media.
Hard work he has been putting throughout his career has yielded tangible results and Sevilla fans should be honoured to find out that the manager of their beloved team has already rejected chances to move away from the club for more lucrative offers from West Ham and Napoli as he wanted to lead his team to more glory.
(Un)clear Future?
As things stand at the moment, it appears that Unai Emery will stay at Sevilla for the next season.
One cannot wonder how Europe’s top clubs are not flying around the Spaniard in effort to tempt him away from Sevilla. Former Real Sociedad midfielder has earned massive plaudits for all he’s done with Rojiblancos and given his success it is expected that it will not be too long before Emery went on to make a next step in his career.
Interested parties should know, or perhaps they are aware of the fact already – Emery is not guided by the principles of the modern-day game.
Rich clubs are not necessarily bigger ones, winning trophies with Sevilla is more important than pocketing money without glory.
Emery still has one game in charge with Sevilla before the 2015-16 season is officially over for his side.
Sevilla are playing Barcelona in the Spanish Copa del Rey final at Vicente Calderon on Sunday and Rojiblancos are sitting at the odds of 8/1 to upset Catalans and pip them to the coveted trophy.
Winning the Spanish Cup would be another notch in Emery’s trophy belt, another proof of his managerial quality, hard work, dedication and commitment.
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