Julen Lopetegui to succeed David Moyes as West Ham head coach - ESPN

West Ham have confirmed the appointment of Julen Lopetegui as David Moyes' replacement as head coach in an announcement on Thursday.

Lopetegui, who has reportedly signed a two-year deal with an option for an extra season, was most recently in charge of Wolves during the 2022-23 campaign, while he has also had stints with the Spain national team, Porto, Real Madrid and Sevilla, where he won the Europa League in 2020.

— Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

«I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big club,» Lopetegui said in a statement. «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 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 we our commitment is 100% 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.»

Sporting CP manager Rúben Amorim was also considered for the West Ham position and held meetings with the club in London last month.

However, sources told ESPN that West Ham officials were impressed with Lopetegui's previous work, while Amorim has since confirmed he will remain at Sporting.

«Julen lives and breathes football,» the club's technical director Tim Steidten said. «He thinks deeply about the game, he is tactically astute