“My heart sank after the game in Vitoria.” The confession was made by Francisco Javier García Pimienta, the Sevilla coach who visits the Camp Nou this Sunday. His team had hit rock bottom with a terrible performance against Alavés, with a 2-1 defeat. Since then, the Andalusian club has beaten Valladolid and Betis, including a draw in San Mamés against Athletic. In front of Barcelona, where Pimi He spent a total of 28 years as a player and coach, an intense Sevilla shines with Badé as the leader in defense, Gudelj and Agoumé commanding the midfield and two powerful wingers like Ejuke and Lukebakio. García Pimienta has toughened a team that steals and comes out very well on the counterattack.
After it was impossible for him to coach the Barcelona first team, in whose subsidiary he dealt with all the youth players of the Blaugrana team, he had to pack his bags to be promoted to Las Palmas and then keep him in the First Division. He had decided not to renew with the Canary Islands team when the call came from Sevilla through its sports director, Víctor Orta. “It was a joy, but I knew where I was coming from,” the Sevilla coach often comments, ready to fight in a real jungle.
Sevilla’s new situation was well reflected in a passage of the documentary LaLiga: Beyond the goal. José Castro, then president, and in the presence of Víctor Orta, clarified to the coach, José Luis Mendilibar, the working method of the Andalusian club. “We have to return to our business model. Young players, with projection and who give us performance, who give us titles and then added value,” said the president. “And what have you done all these years. “I bring 20-year-old kids and I’m in the Champions League too?” Mendilibar replied, questioning the leadership’s idea. He had won the Europa League in May 2023. The Basque lasted only eight more games the following year. Then Diego Alonso and Quique Sánchez Flores arrived. The model presented by the then president has been consummated in a summer of profound renewal in the Andalusian entity.
Sevilla that arrives in Barcelona has 12 points and is reinforced by its victory in the derby against Betis (1-0). In a year where the club, for the first time since 2012, will not compete in continental competition and has had to reduce its budget by 60 million. The reason, the lack of income from not playing in Europe, the high costs of an oversized squad and the impossibility of making large sales that generate capital gains. At the next shareholders meeting, losses worth 80 million euros will be presented.
After six coaches in less than two years, the leaders have bet everything on the work of Víctor Orta, who has had to create a new team with players at zero cost and unknown to the general public. Commanding this squad of names like Agoumé, Peque, Ejuke, Lokonga, Iheanacho or Barco, García Pimienta’s work grows. Xavi, as he is already called in the locker room and at the club, has achieved results that keep Sevilla away from a feared relegation with pragmatism. The Andalusian team, which started by taking the ball from behind, now plays much more directly and on the counterattack. “I see how the kids work and I’m sure we will have a good year,” proclaims the coach himself. “This team is not going to be relegated,” he told the leaders when things were looking worse at the conclusion of the fourth day with Sevilla in 19th position.
For the first time in a year and a half, there is some joy and tranquility in the Sevilla sports city. “García Pimienta has adapted very well to the entity and the squad. But Sevilla is still a team under construction,” says Víctor Salas, a member of the last Sevilla team that beat Barcelona in the League at home in December 2002.
The coach’s good work has meant that the club has surprisingly renewed his contract until 2027. Of course, without a salary increase. “It was a way to show confidence after the media began to question him after the defeat in Vitoria,” said José María del Nido Carrasco, president of Sevilla.
The investment in transfers is a true reflection of the current Sevilla. Only eight million euros have been invested, divided into the four that were paid to Racing for the forward Peque and the other four given to Inter to acquire the midfielder Agoumé. It is the lowest amount in the last 22 years. We have to go back to 2002, when Sevilla spent only 2.83 million euros on the signings of Njegus, Dani Alves and Marcos Vales. In 2019, for example, Sevilla spent up to 189 million on players like Koundé, En-Nesyri and Ocampos.
