Last update 6 June, 2013 by Alberto Llopis
Manolo Preciado died 6 June 2012. Today just a year ago one of the most charismatic coaches left us, plain and authentic that were in this increasingly unromantic world of football.
Normally when misfortune strikes someone from this world it usually impacts but in this particular case, because it is who is, did it hurt, because in the world of football there are few, very few as was the.
Manolo Preciado was an uncle of foot, honored, nearby, honest and would not shut up I thought. He was able to stop him a whole Mourinho, to the point that I almost ended up admiring good old Manolo.
The same thing he did in his Racing de Santander, where he was player. Over there. a character he faced as Dimitri Piterman. This one wanted a puppet and with Manolo it was difficult. He changed money for dignity, something difficult in the world of football and the world in general.
He began his career as a coach at the Gimnástica de Torrelavega and passed through Murcia very briefly, but where they remember him most is in two places. Gijon and Valencia. In the latter city the cantabro technical bravo had found his second home after passing through the Levant. At home he owned, in a beach area near the town it was where he left this world. There he prepared for presentation to the next day by Villarreal, club that had signed the same day.
Manolo Preciado forged his legend especially in the Levante and Sporting Gijon, in 2004 and in 2008. Levante promoted him after 41 years. En la casa “frog” I was already a hero, aquel día 6 June 2012, a year ago, it became a myth.
In Gijón he promoted the team to the highest category. Then he kept it with miracles included for two seasons until he was unjustly dismissed.. In Asturian lands, Manolo Preciado is a legend.
He did not practice any of those who call big, but never made it takes to earn the respect and affection of the entire football world, because he was already big enough, authentic, a fighter despite everything.
The poor man was haunted by fate in less than a decade. A few years ago his wife died, after one of his two sons lost his life in an accident and his father also died fatally in an accident. That night a year ago, the black legend took him ahead. Damned and unfair life.
We do not know what is behind, what happens when we leave this world, but sure, if there's anything, that if there is a world parallel to this and there is football, Manolo is already preparing a seasoned team, with personality, como él. Manolo Preciado, always great.