Five months after announcing that the Washington Spirit had hired Barcelona Femení coach Jonatan Giráldez as the team's new head coach, Giráldez has joined the club in Washington, DC.
Giráldez is coming off of a successful season with the Spanish side, having won UEFA Women's Champions League, Copa de la Reina, Supercopa, and Liga F in his final season to complete a lauded Quadruple.
While Giráldez was finishing out his tenure in Europe, Adrián González filled in as Spirit interim head coach. González has also seen success, leading the team to its third-place standing with a 9-3-1 record through 13 games.
“I’m thrilled to join the Spirit and begin this next chapter with the club,” Giráldez said in an official team statement. “To be part of the vision Michele Kang has for the Spirit and women’s soccer globally is an exciting opportunity.”
Giráldez has worked at Barcelona since 2019, initially coming on as an assistant coach before moving up to head coach in 2021. The team went 30-0-0 on the season under Giráldez during his first year as manager.
He brings along with him Andrés González and Toni Gordo, who will serve as the Spirit's Fitness Coach and Club Analyst, respectively.
Jonatan Giráldez has been named the next head coach of the Washington Spirit, with the club announcing the news on Tuesday.
He joins the Spirit from FC Barcelona Femení, where he has coached since 2019, starting out as an assistant. Back in December, Giráldez announced that he would be leaving Barcelona upon the conclusion of the team’s current campaign for a job “outside of Europe.”
Reports had indicated that job was the Washington Spirit job, although Giráldez would not confirm his next move at the time.
“I can only say it’s outside of Europe,” he said, noting that the decision was a “difficult” one to make. “I would not want to compete against Barça.”
In a release on Tuesday, the Spirit said that hiring Giráldez continued the club’s vision “to build the most preeminent sports organization with a high-performance culture of winning.”
“We conducted an extensive global, data-driven search and found that Jona is the best choice to lead our players. His commitment to excellence and high-performance is second to none and the results speak for themselves including consecutive La Liga and Supercopa titles and multiple top coach honors,” said Spirit owner Michele Kang. “We are grateful for his decision to join us. He will help take the Spirit to the next leveI for both players and fans.”
With Barcelona, Giráldez has helped the team to its first Champions League trophy as an assistant coach. Since being named head coach for the 2021-22 season, he’s won the Queen’s Cup, two Supercopas, two Primera División titles, the most recent Champions League title and had a 50-game winning streak in Spanish league play.
Spirit president of soccer operations Mark Krikorian called Giráldez the “ideal” coach to help the team achieve its vision.
“Jona knows how to develop players into champions,” he said. “He will bring a beautiful style of play to the Spirit that we know our fans will enjoy.”
In a statement, Giráldez said that he is “very excited” about the opportunity to lead the Spirit.
“It’s a great honor and a greater responsibility to help bring the club to the next level so I will dedicate my heart and soul to make everyone around the team proud and part of something great,” said Giráldez. “I really want to thank Michele and Mark for the opportunity my family and myself have been given. I will be looking forward to meeting the staff, players and fans in DC soon.”
Giráldez will remain with Barcelona through the end of its Champions League season, which could be as late as the Champions League final on May 25. An interim head coach will be named until then.
Barcelona coach Jonatan Giráldez has confirmed his departure from the club amid reports that he will be making a move to the NWSL in 2024.
In announcing his departure, Giráldez said that he had received an offer from “outside of Europe.” The 32-year-old will remain in charge of reigning Champions League titleholder Barcelona until the end of the team’s current campaign, which is when his contract is set to expire.
“I communicated to the club a few days ago my intention to not renew my contract,” Giráldez said in a news conference. “I wanted the timing of the decision to allow the club the most time possible to plan for the good of the team. Also, on a personal level, I wanted to avoid the focus being on [my future] when we get to March, April-time when we are usually competing for titles.
“Since [sporting director] Marc Vivés came in, we had been negotiating [a renewal]. There were things left to negotiate, relating to my staff, and during that impasse I received another offer which I decided to accept.”
Giráldez would not confirm his next move, although reports pointed to an offer from an NWSL club. Relevo reported Monday that the offer came from the Washington Spirit, who parted ways with Mark Parsons in October after missing the playoffs this season.
Giráldez would not confirm the reports but said it was a “difficult” decision to make.
“I can only say it’s outside of Europe,” he said. “I would not want to compete against Barça.”
Giráldez denied the pressure of the Barcelona role taking a toll, and noted that he would have continued if not for the alternate offer that made him reconsider. He also denied making the move solely based on money.
“If I was only deciding based on that, I would have left before,” he said. “When I make a decision, I look at many aspects. I have received much bigger offers than the one I have now.
“I assess many different things, not just money: the challenge, the sporting project and my family. It’s a professional and a family decision. It is to do with the objective of developing personally.”
Giráldez has led Barcelona since 2021, when he took over for Lluís Cortés. He had been an assistant under Cortés for the previous two seasons. In his time as head coach, Barcelona has won Liga F in each of the last two seasons, including winning all 30 league games in the 2021-22 season. They also reached the Champions League finals in both seasons, and they won the 2023 title.
He was named to the shortlist for the Best FIFA Women’s Coach award last week, alongside Chelsea’s Emma Hayes and England’s Sarina Wiegman.