Quique Flores Introduced

Benfica introduced its new coach today during a press conference at Estadio da Luz. It was the formalizing of what the Portuguese media had reported yesterday.
Quique had a low profile arrival in Lisbon last night, making his exit through a back door of the airport.

Quique was introduced as a young ambitious coach, who fits the profile Rui Costa wanted for a new coach. In his first words, Flores promised a lot of hard work and a competitive team, whose main goals for the upcoming season is to get back in the Champions League and fight for the league, with hard work and coherency.

At 43, Quique Flores does not have an extensive curriculum, but the little there is, is respectable for such "young" career in coaching. He coached Getafe in 04/05, obtaining a respectable middle of the table position. He then was hired by Valencia where he coached in 05/06, 06/07 and was sacked at the end of October 07(first part of last season)when Valencia entered their downward spiral, Ronald Koeman took his place, but wasn't able to do much better. At Valencia, he qualified Valencia for the Champions League group stages in the two years he was there, an important achievement considering the competitiveness of La Liga.

As a player(right back), Flores represented Valencia for most of his career(84-94), Real Madrid(94-96), winning La Liga in 95, and finished his career playing for Zaragoza(96/97 season). He was part of Spain's 1991 World Cup team and compiled 15 caps throughout his career.

As a coach, Flores is known for being a student of the game, with a emphasis on his analytical capabilities of the game.

According to the media, one of the conditions that was requested by Quique was the signing of 4 important players of considerable talent. One of the names already being called is the Frenchmen Hassan Yebda, a 24 year old midfielder, at the end of contract with Le Mans. Quique spoke briefly about the player at his introduction, which is a sign Benfica might be on the way to signing him. Maisfutebol reports that both Quique and Yebda spent the night in the same hotel in Lisbon.

Also being speculated are, Gouffran, Caneira, Carlos Martins.

An interesting tidbit of information - Both Flores and Camacho will be the commentators for a Spanish station during the upcoming Euro.


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