Celje coach in portrait
©IMAGO
Marco Rose, Alexander Blessin and Edin Terzic – many well-known names in Germany were traded in Eintracht Frankfurt’s coaching search. But less common options like Kjetil Knutsen (FK Bodø/Glimt) and Jacob Neestrup (FC Copenhagen) were also considered candidates. It will now obviously come down to a head coach who only a few people in this country know: Albert Riera. Transfermarkt introduces the 43-year-old.
Riera, whose full name is Albert Riera Ortega, was born in Manacor on Mallorca. In addition to Spanish, he also has Russian citizenship because his wife is from Russia and he lived in Tomsk with his family for a few years after his career ended. As a Mallorcan, he took his first steps as a player at RCD Mallorca before moving abroad for the first time at the age of 21 and signing for Girondins Bordeaux in France. He stayed there for two years, but then returned to his homeland and played for Espanyol Barcelona. With 94, he played the most games in his active career for the Catalans.
In total, he was under contract with eleven different clubs, including Liverpool FC – where he reached his highest market value of 16 million euros – Manchester City and Galatasaray, in seven countries. Riera became champions in Turkey and Greece and cup winners in Spain and Turkey. He appeared for the national team 16 times during his active career. The former left-wing rail player ended his professional career in Slovenia, first at DNS Zavrc, then at FC Koper, where he ultimately hung up his boots in 2016. But he didn’t stay there after that, but from 2020 he gained his first experience as an assistant coach at his former club Gala, first under Fatih Terim and later under Domènec Torrent.
For his first position as head coach, he went back to Slovenia and took over at NK Olimpija in 2022, where he stayed for a year and led the club to the championship and cup triumph straight away. He then moved on to NK Celje within the country, but left after a few months to take a coaching position at his former club Girondins Bordeaux. After relegation to the 4th league, he left the traditional club that had fallen and returned to work in Celje. Since then, there has been an average of 1.84 points in 91 games and the 2024/25 cup victory. He also reached the UEFA Conference League playoffs with the club. His contract with the current leaders of the Prva Liga is valid until 2028, so a transfer fee is due for the Hessians. According to the “Bild” newspaper, this will amount to around 1.3 million euros.
Frankfurt goal Riera: Stands for offensive football – comparison with Muslic
Zlatan Skaljo (“YanGuAmtoHui”), data manager in Slovenia for Transfermarkt, has been observing Riera for a long time and describes his philosophy as follows: “Flexibility is at the top of his list. Players have to be able to hold several positions and you often see players swap positions during games. It’s the same with tactics.” The 43-year-old also stands for “offensive football”, a “dominant appearance” and “high pressing characterized by a lot of ball possession in a 4-3-3 system”. Skaljo: “He also played like that in Europe against opponents who were bigger in name and tried to push through his game and not perhaps stand more defensively and wait for counterattacks.” In the Conference League there were victories against AEK Athens (3:1), Shamrock Rovers (2:0) and Legia Warsaw (2:1). Athens and Warsaw in particular have much more valuable squads than Celje with its 13 million euros.
In addition to his tactical skills, he is also a “great person” and a good motivator, reports Skaljo. “With him, the person comes first and then the player. Riera talks a lot to his protégés and always encourages those who play little. That they too are important and will get their chance.” The motto for the ex-professional is: You can only be successful together.
If the negotiations with Frankfurt come to a successful conclusion, Skaljo believes Riera could follow a similar path to Miron Muslic at Schalke 04. “In other words, a coach who is relatively unknown at this level, but has the potential to lead a team back up.” Muslic took over at the Royal Blues in the summer and led them to first place in the 2nd Bundesliga. Before that, he was on the sidelines at lower-class Plymouth Argyle in England. However, such a development is “difficult to assess because Riera has worked at a lower level up to now. Eintracht is of course a giant in comparison, especially the media world in Frankfurt and Germany.” In Slovenia and Celje, on the other hand, things are very quiet and there is hardly any pressure.
In contrast, at the SGE he would be much more in the public eye. His character should then quickly become apparent. “I don’t know whether it’s a weakness, but negatively you have to mention his temperament,” says Skaljo: “He argues a lot with referees and opponents. If things don’t go the way he wants, he likes to get loud and tend to blame others.” There are also examples of this from his time in Bordeaux, which regularly brought him into the headlines. Riera’s personality is likely to be a completely different type than Dino Toppmöller, who did not appear publicly as a loudspeaker or hothead.
