Sevilla’s Julen Lopetegui: ‘I’m the black sheep of the family, hooked on football’

“I came out twisted,” Julen Lopetegui says. His father, José Antonio, was a harrijasotzailea, a champion Basque stonelifter who competed under the name Aguerre II, held the record for raising 22 100-kilo cylinders in a minute and rejected proposals from a promoter linked to Al Capone to become a heavyweight boxer. His uncle Luis, Aguerre I, had been a harrijasotzailea too, known throughout the land. And his brother Joxean was a professional pelotari. But then something went wrong.

Julen could play Basque pelota too, a basket for a hand, the ball travelling faster than any sport on earth. “I had a chance to be professional but my passion was football,” he says. “I’m the black sheep of the family, hooked on football from the start. My dad was well known in an era when in stonelifting was big, a living. My brother was a pelotari at a high level. But when I did the typical psychoanalyses, the ‘what will you be?’ tests at school, the first answer to come out was footballer. The second – get this – was football journalist. If I didn’t play, at least I could see games for free.”

If the world lost a byline, it gained a goalkeeper and eventually a coach, guided by lessons learned at home even if he chose the wrong sport. “My father was a great sportsman, an outstanding athlete, but he didn’t do football at all,” Lopetegui says. “Yet growing up with the values he instilled – effort, sacrifice, never seeking excuses – helped forge my character.” He came out twisted but turned out all right. When Joxean was pelota championin 1986, Julen was joining Castilla from Real Sociedad’s academy – the start of a 17-year career that passed through Real Madrid and Barcelona and the 1994 World Cup.

Then came coaching, a transition towards a