Jordi García
Wednesday 2 July 2008
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Spain coach Jordi García (©RFEF)
Several coaches in the UEFA European Under-21 Futsal Tournament have a background in another sport – football. Spain coach Jordi García also came to futsal through another discipline, only in his case it was rally driving.
García started playing as a futsal goalkeeper as part of his training regime to improve his reactions, but began to take the sport more seriously and in 1991 took over as assistant coach of FC Barcelona's reserve team. Five years later he joined the senior set-up, aiding them to promotion to the División de Honor but then suffering relegation. After a brief spell coaching Olesa FS, he returned to Barcelona and won two league titles at youth level.
In 2001, García was hired by the Spanish Football Federation, moving up through the ranks of the youth national teams and achieving some fine results before taking over the Under-21 side in 2005. In his first campaign he won the prestigious annual Autumn tournament in St Petersburg and repeated that victory last year with a penalty shoot-out triumph against Russia. Spain strolled through qualifying for the first UEFA U21 finals in April, and García says his team are playing "marvellously well".
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