Man City hire another 'Man' to succeed Mancini. Can Pellegrini deliver for the Citizens?
Manchester City have finally announced Manuel Pellegrini as their new manager. The former Malaga, Real Madrid, Villarreal manager has been appointed as Roberto Mancini’s successor.
Pellegrini played as a central defender and spent his career at Universidad Chile, making 451 appearances for the Santiago based club.
The 59 year old has past experience of managing in 10 clubs. As a coach, Pellegrini has featured mostly in Spain, Argentina, and Chile. He has had various ups and downs throughout his career.
His club Universidad Católica finished as the runner-ups of Premier Division of Chile. He had two unsuccessful spells at Chilean club Palestino in 1992 and 1998. He led Quito, an Ecuadorian club, to Serie A de Ecuador in 1999.
His reputation reached a new level when he won Copa Mercosur, South America’s Europa cup equivalent. There was no looking back for Pellegrini from here.
He had a successful stint at Argentinian giants River Plate. Then, in 2004 he took over as manager of Villarreal. In his very first season he secured the Spanish side a Champions League spot and also reached the quarter finals of Europa League.
On top of this, he surprised the whole continent by leading Villarreal to Champions League semi-finals. Plus, at the end of the 2007-2008 campaign he finished second in la Liga.
In 2009 Pellegrini left “The Yellow Submarines” and joined “The Los Blancos”. Pellegrini signed Kaka from Milan, Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, Benzema from Olympique Lyon and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool spending a whooping 200 million Euros.
In 2010 season his Real Madrid side won 96 points in La Liga but still lost the league to Barcelona (99 points). He also lost the round 16 of UCL to Lyon. Following this, he was sacked by the club.
He then signed a three year deal with Malaga. He guided Los Boquerones to the Quarterfinals of the 2012 Champions League but lost the semifinal spot to Borussia Dortmund in a thrilling encounter.
After weeks of speculations, today Manchester City have announced Pellegrini as the new man in charge of running their Golden Era.
Let us hope he can fight out with Mourinho and David Moyes for the EPL title.
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