Quique Setién facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Quique Setién

Setién in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Enrique Setién Solar
Date of birth	(1958-09-27) 27 September 1958 (age 66)
Place of birth	Santander, Spain
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Central midfielder
Team information
Current team	Beijing Guoan (head coach)
Youth career
	Casablanca
	Perines
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1977–1985	Racing Santander	204	(43)
1985–1988	Atlético Madrid	73	(7)
1988–1992	Logroñés	114	(20)
1992–1996	Racing Santander	124	(25)
1996	Levante	3	(0)
Total		518	(95)
International career
1978–1982	Spain U21	2
1985–1986	Spain	3	(0)
Managerial career
2001–2002	Racing Santander
2003	Poli Ejido
2006	Equatorial Guinea
2007–2008	Logroñés
2009–2015	Lugo
2015–2017	Las Palmas
2017–2019	Betis
2020	Barcelona
2022–2023	Villarreal
2024–	Beijing Guoan
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Enrique "Quique" Setién Solar (born September 27, 1958) is a Spanish former footballer. He played as a central midfielder. Today, he is a manager for the Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan.

As a player, people called him El Maestro, which means "The Master." He was famous for playing two times with Racing de Santander. He started and ended his 19-year career there. He played 374 matches in La Liga (Spain's top league) and scored 58 goals. He also played three times for the Spanish national team.

Setién began his coaching career in 2001. He has coached several teams, including Racing. From January to August 2020, he was in charge of Barcelona. He was let go after a big 8–2 loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League.

Playing Career Highlights

Club Football Journey

Quique Setién was born in Santander. He made his first appearance in La Liga in 1977. This was with his hometown club, Racing de Santander. During his first time with Racing, he played often. However, he was not always a starting player. He missed the entire 1982–83 season. His team also got moved down to a lower league twice.

After Racing, Setién played for Atlético Madrid for three years. He had two good seasons there. But in his last year, he did not play much. This was because of disagreements with the club chairman, Jesús Gil.

In 1988, Setién moved to Logroñés. After a slow start, he became very important. He helped the team stay in the top league. In 1992, at 34 years old, he went back to Racing. He scored 11 goals in his first year back. This was his best goal-scoring season. Racing also got promoted back to the top league that year. He played three more years with Racing. He retired in June 1996, at almost 38. His last games were for Levante in the Segunda División B play-offs, where they also won promotion.

In 2001, Racing fans voted Setién their best player ever. He played almost 600 official matches in nearly 20 years. He scored 95 goals in league games.

International Matches

Setién played three times for the Spanish national team. He was chosen for the 1986 FIFA World Cup team. However, he did not play in any games during the tournament in Mexico. His first game for Spain was on November 20, 1985. It was a 0–0 friendly match against Austria in Zaragoza.

Coaching Career Journey

Early Coaching Days

Setién started coaching on October 5, 2001. He took over Racing after their previous coach was fired. Racing had started the season badly after being moved down to Segunda División. Setién helped the team move from 17th place to second. This meant they were promoted back to a higher league. But he left at the end of the season due to pressure.

For the 2003–04 season, Setién coached Poli Ejido in the second division. He was fired on November 17. The team was in the relegation zone at that time.

In 2005, Setién became an assistant coach for the Russia national beach soccer team. For three months in 2006, he coached Equatorial Guinea. After that, he coached Logroñes, another team he used to play for. He was let go midway through the 2007–08 season.

Coaching Lugo

In June 2009, Setién became the coach of Lugo. In his third year, he led the team to promotion to the second division. This was only the second time in history for the club.

For the next three years, Lugo managed to stay in the league. They finished between 11th and 15th place.

Coaching Las Palmas

On October 19, 2015, Setién became the new manager of Las Palmas. They were in the top league. When he arrived, the team was in the relegation zone. He helped them finish 11th in his first season.

On March 18, 2017, Setién said he would leave Las Palmas. This was at the end of that season. He had disagreements with the club's board.

Coaching Betis

On May 26, 2017, Setién was named manager of Real Betis. He signed a three-year contract. In his first year, he led the team to sixth place. This meant they qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Europa League.

Setién was rumored to move to Barcelona in January 2019, but it did not happen then. On May 19, he announced he would leave Betis.

Coaching Barcelona

Setién became the head coach of Barcelona on January 13, 2020. He replaced Ernesto Valverde. His contract was until June 2022. In his first game, six days later, Barcelona won 1–0 at home against Granada.

The team finished second in the domestic league, behind Real Madrid. On August 14, 2020, Barcelona lost 8–2 to Bayern Munich. This was in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League. It was the first time in 74 years that Barcelona had given up eight goals in a game. It was also their first loss by a six-goal difference since 1951. He was officially fired three days later. He later said he would take legal action because he felt his contract terms were not respected.

Coaching Villarreal

Setién returned to coaching on October 25, 2022. He replaced Unai Emery at Villarreal. Emery had moved to Aston Villa. Setién led Villarreal to fifth place. This meant they qualified for the Europa League.

On September 5, 2023, Setién was fired because of poor results.

Coaching Beijing Guoan

On December 10, 2024, Setién was appointed coach of the Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan.

Personal Life and Interests

Setién's son, Laro, is also a footballer and plays as a midfielder. His father-in-law, José Antonio Lozano, played in Spain's second league in the early 1960s. All three of them played for Racing Santander. Besides Spanish, Quique Setién also speaks English and Italian.

Setién loves playing chess. He has a FIDE rating of 1965. He even played matches against former world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. The results of those games were not made public. He has said that chess influences his football tactics. He likes teams that keep the ball a lot and control the middle of the field.

Before coaching Barcelona, Setién lived in Liencres [es]. This town is near Santander and has many cows. He once said, "Yesterday I was walking past cows in my home town; today I was at Barcelona's training ground coaching the best players in the world, an enormous club." In April 2020, he talked about winning titles. He said, "If it can be both [La Liga and Champions League], better. And of course I have dreamed of walking around Liencres with the cows while holding up the Champions League trophy and showing it to them."

Managerial Statistics

This table shows Quique Setién's coaching record for different teams. It includes how many games he coached (P), how many wins (W), draws (D), and losses (L) his teams had, and their win percentage.

Honours

Player Achievements

Atlético Madrid

• Supercopa de España: 1985
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup runner-up: 1985–86

See also

In Spanish: Quique Setién para niños