When in 1985 the Real Sociedad board felt that the successful era of Alberto Ormaetxea on the bench had ended, despite the two league championships, they set their sights on a coach without much reputation. He was not the favorite, but they contacted the coach who had managed Sporting de Portugal and, above all, while combining his work with that of a player, had taken the modest Welsh Swansea City from the fourth division of English football to the Premier League. John Benjamin Toshack is a legend in Guipúzcoa not only for his successes, the 1987 Cup and the runner-up positions in the league and cup a year later, but also for the mark he left on the club and the fans.
Since December, and especially since Marrero was a wall and Pablo Marín scored the last penalty of the shootout against Atlético at La Cartuja, the 'Basque from Wales' has found a successor in the hearts of the fans. No one expected it when in December, Erik Bretos, the sporting director, put his name on the table due to the need to dismiss Sergio Francisco. Real Sociedad was two points away from relegation with a squad designed, based on Zubieta, to compete for Europe. "Perhaps we needed someone from outside to tell us what we were doing wrong", admitted president Jokin Aperribay. Just like in 1985.
This time, the bet would be an American, born and raised in New Jersey, with a degree in applied mathematics from Columbia and with just two years of experience in the Bundesliga. If anyone feared he would be a Ted Lasso - the character who portrays an American football coach from Kansas, the protagonist of a successful series, who arrives in the Premier League knowing nothing about football - soon realized that was not the case. Pellegrino Matarazzo (Wayne, 1977) has football in his soul since he watched with his father the Napoli of Diego Armando Maradona. His name may not have been well-known, especially after a year away from the benches, but Bretos had already seen in him everything that would make him fit in Anoeta.
Neither tactics nor big data nor demanding physical work. His path to rescue Real and lead them to success has gone through the minds and hearts of his players. If Toshack won them over by making them have fun with the ball in training, Rino has boosted their confidence. "He is approachable, jokes around, talks to you...", described Álex Remiro. In that aspect, he is similar to Ted Lasso. "But he is huge and imposing when he gets angry," added Turrientes in these pages.
"Players need to be given confidence and clarity, then they go on their own". This reflection has been the key to the transformation that the coach has achieved, who does not hesitate to acknowledge that one of his greatest strengths is the "ability" to adapt. Real did not need so much his tactical and mathematical side as the emotional one. His one-on-one conversations with the players reached Oskarsson or Sucic, but also Turrientes, Soler, or Guedes. All of them have shown their best version with the American.
He also does not forget about the club and its people. "You feel his willingness to connect with our culture and our history. He comes to contribute", they say from within. Besides preparing training sessions, matches, and being fully dedicated to his players, he connects with the people of San Sebastián by having two glasses of wine and some pintxos in the Old Town with his assistants the day after a victory, discovering the pleasure of taking a nap or going for three-hour walks as a way to calm his nerves, as he did before his first final. He also makes an effort to learn Spanish - his mother tongue is Italian, he speaks English and German - and some Euskera out of respect for his fans, "who have a strong sense of who they are," he acknowledged in an interview with the club's media.
This psychological aspect has made his players soar and has shattered some curses in just four months. On January 13th at El Sadar, he broke one that had been lingering since 1989: Real had not won a penalty shootout. He did it against Osasuna and also to become the Cup champion.
Matarazzo has brought glory to Real, but he has also written his name in the elite of football that, as a player, despised him. After finishing his career, he went to Italy, to his mother's hometown, Ospedaletto D'Alpinolo, near Salerno, to pursue a dream. An agent promised him a trial at Salernitana that never materialized, and after months of training among olive trees, he signed for Nocerina.
Unsuccessful in Italy, he returned to the United States before trying again in Germany. He wandered through fourth division clubs until he reached Nuremberg in 2010. Playing as a midfielder with his 1.98m height, he seemed "wooden," as he confessed to The Guardian, but he understood the game. That's why he obtained his coaching license. To reach the UEFA Pro license, he had to apply twice, but he managed to enter the same promotion as Julian Nagelsmann.
They became friends, and the current German national team coach called him to be his assistant at Hoffenheim. He moved to Stuttgart to take them to the Bundesliga in 2019 and returned to Hoffenheim to guide them back to the Europa League in 2024. However, the relationship broke down, and the Italo-American was left without a bench.
Travels with his son to Japan or Costa Rica filled some of those months, during which he saw how Mauricio Pochettino became the coach of the United States, a position for which his name had been mentioned. Then Real called him. "We hit it off in all the meetings. I knew the team, what the improvement points were, and where the evolution lay. From there, we had no doubts," confessed the president. Rino, neither. He has already surpassed the achievement of Jesse Marsch, another American champion... but in Austria. Nothing comparable.