From Barcelona to the NWSL to Subaru Park, Jonatan Giráldez is living a historic soccer experiment

After spending five years building a European women's soccer superpower, Giráldez moved to the U.S. for a different challenge. His Washington Spirit won at Subaru Park on Sunday.

Jonatan Giráldez came to the Washington Spirit this year after helping Barcelona become Europe's most dominant women's club.Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published July 21, 2024, 9:10 p.m. ET

Jonatan Giráldez doesn’t cut a particularly imposing figure on a sideline. So you might not guess at first glance that he’s one of the most famous managers in the women’s soccer world.

But he sure is, and was on Subaru Park’s sideline Sunday.

Giráldez came to the Washington Spirit this summer from Barcelona, the famed Spanish team that has become Europe’s most dominant women’s club. He was Barcelona’s manager for the last three years and an assistant for two before then, winning five straight Spanish titles and three Champions Leagues in the last four years.

A native of Galicia, on Spain’s northwest coast, Giráldez helped develop many of the players who won Spain’s first World Cup title last year: reigning world player of the year Aitana Bonmatí, 2021 and ‘22 winner Alexia Putellas, and colleagues Jenni Hermoso, Mapi León, and Salma Paralluelo.

In the last three years, Barcelona lost a total of three games. This past season, the team went undefeated — winning every game but two ties — and lifted a quadruple of league and cup trophies.

‘I like to suffer’

Why leave a position of such success? And why come to America, of all places, instead of staying in Europe?

It didn’t exactly hurt that powerful Spirit owner Y. Michele Kang reportedly offered him a big pay raise. But the real reason wasn’t about money. He felt he was missing a kind of challenge that Barcelona couldn’t provide, being so dominant. You can’t win a Champions League in the United States, but the NWSL is the only major women’s league where any team can win — and therefore lose — any game.

He wanted to feel that.

“I like to suffer,” he said, “because I think for me, it’s part of my job. And what I want to say to the players, I have to lead with that, I have to be an example with that. So I like to have [my] emotions under control, at the same time as the players have to be like me.”

The Spirit agreed to wait for Barcelona to end its season in mid-June before Giráldez came over. The NWSL season was well underway when he did, with fellow Spaniard Adrián Gonzalez helming things as the interim.

Sunday’s 2-1 win over Chivas of Guadalajara in the NWSL’s summer tournament with Mexican clubs was Giráldez’s second game in charge. The NWSL stopped its regular season for the Olympics because so many stars are away, and this is how it’s passing the time.

Washington moved the game to Chester because of a venue conflict at their D.C. home, and will be back in town next Sunday for one of Gotham FC’s “home” games in the tournament (6 p.m., CBS Sports’ Golazo Network streaming platform).

Paige Metayer and Lena Silano scored for the Spirit, the latter assisted by South Jersey’s Brittany Ratcliffe on a terrific team play. Alicia Cervantes, Chivas’ biggest star, scored after them.

That led to a little tension down the stretch, and Giráldez relished it.

“When I have that feeling, I love it,” he said. “I need it to survive … [to] face the week in the best possible way to move forward, and be better than last week.”

‘Open to learn’

Obviously, two games isn’t much time to judge players — especially since U.S. national team stars Trinity Rodman, Casey Krueger, and Croix Bethune are at the Olympics. But Giráldez already knew a few things about players in America, and it didn’t take him long to learn more.

“Open-minded people,” Giráldez said. “Adapting as well, small details for my way to be as a coach. When you have the same goal, thinking in the future what you want to become as a team, I like [that] a lot because I think they are hearing what I want.”

This ties to an old adage in soccer circles. Though American players often lack the tactical sophistication of their international counterparts, they have a work ethic and desire to learn that other players don’t. That is music to a manager’s ears.

“They have the habit to work. That is an important beginning,” Giráldez said. “Sometimes when you don’t have the habit, it doesn’t matter if you are good players or you aren’t. But they have the habit, and the desire to be better, to improve.”

There are lots of tactical things he wants to teach: when to speed up, when to pass it more, how to be more precise with defensive pressing. But they come with an overarching theme that could appeal to any coach.

“They are open to learn,” Giráldez said. “What I want is not to change anything — just give them more tools to be better players. That is the only thing I want. I have no ego on that. The players are the protagonists in the game.”

Ratcliffe, a Paul VI High School product, said the message has been getting through.

“He’s so detail-oriented, he’s so calm, he’s so optimistic,” she said. “I just feel like every word out of his mouth is very constructive, and has a meaning, and is intentional in what he says. He really wants us to be better in every way, whether it’s a complicated tactical thing, or even just a simple [thing] like playing the proper foot.”

Other managers taking notice

There certainly have been famous managers in MLS and the NWSL over the years. Gerardo “Tata” Martino coached Barcelona and Argentina’s men before coming to MLS. Carlos Alberto Parreira coached the old New York/New Jersey MetroStars three years after winning the 1994 World Cup with Brazil. Laura Harvey helped Arsenal become England’s first women’s soccer dynasty before crossing the Atlantic.

Many famous ex-players have also coached here: Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, Ruud Gullit, Cindy Parlow Cone, and Amy Rodriguez, to name a few.

But Giráldez’s arrival felt different from those. Not only did he leave Barcelona right after his last Champions League title, but he’s just 32. His wife and young son came over with him, and they settled in the D.C. suburb where the Spirit’s practice facility is. He could be here for a while if he wants to be.

“He’s such an open-minded person, and so open and up for a challenge,” said Washington Spirit general manager Mark Krikorian, who 21 years ago coached the old Philadelphia Charge. “He’s obviously an elite-level coach, and he’s a good guy as well, and our players have taken to him in the short amount of time that he’s been here so far. I think he’s going to help raise the style of play in the league, the profile of the league, and just make every area better.”

Union manager Jim Curtin has been watching, too. There isn’t much cross-pollination between men’s and women’s club coaches in America — Curtin wishes there was time for more — but any big-name leader who comes from abroad raises the tide for everyone.

“It’s starting to happen more in our league, and I think that it’ll happen more and more in the women’s league as they see just how appealing it is,” Curtin said, noting NWSL teams’ fan bases, stadiums, training facilities, and the perennial drawing power of living in the United States.

“I’m all for new ideas being injected into the men’s league, to the women’s league,” he said. “That’s a great example of one where, yeah, they took a risk for sure, it’s different. But usually, when you’re brave like, that it winds up being rewarding.”