Everything you need to know about Aston Villa’s assistant head coach Pako Ayestaran.
Since Unai Emery has come into the club, Villa have been on the up. After taking over a side that was fighting relegation under Steven Gerard, the Spaniard pulled the club all the way up into European places for the first time in over a decade.
This season, things have only continued to improve. Villa currently sits fourth and has a considerable chance of reaching the Champions League at the end of the season.
Emery and Monchi will get the bulk of the praise for the achievement. However, the manager’s righthand man has also helped build the club’s success.
Here is everything you need to know about Aston Villa’s assistant head coach Ayestaran.
Who is Pako Ayestaran?
Ayestran is a coach and former manager of several clubs over the course of his 28-year career.
The Spaniard started his career off at Osasuna in 1996 as the assistant manager. From here, he would join multiple other Spanish clubs before becoming Rafa Benitez’s right-hand man at Valencia in 2001.
After overseeing a golden period at the Spanish club, in 2004 he would join Benitez at Liverpool, helping the side lift the Champions League in 2005.
Upon departing the Reds in 2008, Ayestaran then eyed a managerial position. He achieved this in 2014, joining Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv.
From here, he eventually ended up back at Valencia as the manager back in 2016. However, he would only last 12 games before being sacked.
After more short stints as manager, Ayestaran has now reverted back to being an assistant.
How old is Pako Ayestaran?
Born on February 5, 1963, Ayestaran is 61 years of age at the time of writing.
When did Pako Ayestaran join Aston Villa?
The 61-year-old joined Aston Villa in November 2022. Ayestaran joined the coaching staff alongside five others as part of Emery’s team.
How is he rated?
Ayestaran is a highly-rated coach in the world of footballing. His achievements back in the early 2000s speak for themself.
At both Valencia and Liverpool, he won numerous titles, including a Champions League.
In September 2023, Peter Crouch, who was at Liverpool between 2005-08 believes a lot of Aston Villa’s success is helped on by Ayestaran.
He told the Peter Crouch Podcast: “Pako Ayestaran at Liverpool under Rafa [Benitez], I can’t not mention him when I talk about assistant managers.
“Pako was absolutely incredible, and he’s now with Unai Emery at Aston Villa, still in the game. The thing is with Pako, he ran the show.
“Rafa was obviously the boss, he picked the team, but on the day-to-day kind of training, everything was planned. We’d ask ‘why are we doing this” and he’d go, this is the reason, like straight away.
“He’d have a minute-by-minute play book on why we were doing certain training sessions on a certain day, tactical day. Even the warm-up, pre-season for instance, felt a lot easier than what I was used to. Back in the day, you used to run until you threw up.
“Now we were doing a lot lighter running but it was timed to suit the kind of environment for what we were going to do the next day, how we recovered. I just found him so impressive and I think we lost something when Rafa and Pako fell out.
“They bought someone else in and he was good, but I just think that Pako was very, very good, and very well respected.”
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