Pepe Sánchez, the former coach of Málaga or coordinator of the Malaguista youth squad, died yesterday at the age of 74, after a long illness.
After playing for local teams in Malaga, he began his coaching career at the beginning of the 70s in the Antiguo Alumnos, a team that played their matches at the current IES Rosaleda. In the middle of that decade he became the coach of the El Palo Sports Center and in 1978, under the presidency of Federico Brinkmann, he joined the Málaga Sports Club as a coach for the youth team.
He would remain in office for a period of three years, going on to direct Atlético Benamiel in the Third Division in 1981. Precisely that year he obtained the title of national coach in Gerona, where Antonio Benítez and Lorenzo Serra Ferrer were also among others.
The following season he would return to CD El Palo, for the 1983-84 campaign to return to CD Málaga, with Antonio Pérez-Gascón as president. Again he would be in charge of training the Atlético Malagueño youth, until in the 1985-86 campaign, when José Luis Fuentes stopped being the coach of the Malaguista subsidiary to take over CD Málaga, Pepe Sánchez replaced him in the Blue and White subsidiary.
Two seasons later he would follow the same path as José Luis Fuentes and, after the dismissal of Ladislao Kubala, Pepe Sánchez became coach of CD Málaga during the last 5 CD Málaga games in the 1987-1988 campaign, that of ‘Super Málaga’ that it raised to First Division. As a man of the house, he returned the following year to the Atlético Malagueño bench, where he remained until the 1990-1991 season.
The 91-92 trained the team of CD Los Boliches, in 2nd Division B, and would make a short break to return to the benches in the 1993-1994 season, where they started at Motril CF in Third Division and ended it at Atlético Malagueño in 2nd Division B. He would return to the Costa Tropical team the following year and from 1995 to 1998 he coached a historic soccer player from Malaga, CD Alhaurino.
In the 1998-1999 season he was at CP Granada 74 and, at the end of that campaign, he returned again to the Martiricos team, taking charge of the Honor Division Youth team. From 2000 to 2006 he was in charge of coordinating the youth squad, except for the 2001-2002 season where he coached Málaga B in the Third Division. During that stage as coordinator, Málaga CF of the Junior Honor Division was champion of the Spanish Champions Cup for the first time in its history. His last campaign in the blue and white team was 2006-2007, linked to the quarry.
The last foray into the benches was made at the El Palo Sports Center in the interval from 2007 to 2011, where he went from training the team in Preferred Regional to leaving it at the gates of promotion to 2ªB.
The president of the Spanish Federation, Luis Rubiales, whom he directed and made his debut at Motril, wanted to say goodbye to Pepe Sánchez:
Pepe, 27 years ago I met you and you put me to play in the @CFMOTRIL with footballers who were twice my age You taught us that we could be proud and humble at the same time. ALWAYS LOVING, CLOSE, ENTHUSIASTIC You were A GOOD MAN until the end of your days. DEP Pepe Sánchez
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