Fernando Vázquez · Biography

Fernando Vázquez Pena was born in 1954 in Castrofeito, a parish in the municipality of O Pino, in the province of A Coruña, Galicia. Before devoting himself fully to football he worked as a secondary school teacher, with posts in Noia, Arzúa, Lalín and Melide. While teaching he began coaching youth sides, and from there he built a career that took him to the dugouts of Celta de Vigo, Deportivo de La Coruña, Mallorca, Real Betis, Real Oviedo and several other clubs in the Spanish first and second divisions.

From the classroom to the Lalín bench

His first senior side was CD Lalín, whom he started coaching in 1986. For years he combined the touchline with his teaching job, working in the regional and national tiers of Galician football. In 1991 he took charge of Racing de Ferrol, and in June 1992 he led them to promotion from the Tercera División to Segunda División B. In the 1994-95 season he coached CD Lugo, another long-established club in the region, which brought his spell in the lower divisions to a close.

Compostela, Oviedo and the step up to La Liga

In 1995 he joined SD Compostela, the club that made his name at the top level. With the Santiago side he coached in the Spanish top flight for almost three seasons, during the years when Compostela competed in La Liga. He was dismissed in March 1998. The following summer he signed for Real Oviedo, whom he led through the 1998-99 top-flight campaign with survival as the Asturian club’s main aim.

Mallorca, Betis and years on the move

In 1999 he took over RCD Mallorca and coached them through the 1999-2000 season, in which the Balearic side finished tenth in the league. In 2000 he moved to Real Betis. From then on he went through a series of short spells in the first and second divisions: UD Las Palmas in 2001-02, Rayo Vallecano in 2002-03 and Real Valladolid in 2003-04, where he was sacked in April 2004. Those were seasons of short contracts and frequent changes of city, common enough in the profession.

Celta de Vigo

In the summer of 2004 he accepted an offer from Celta de Vigo, who had just been relegated to the Spanish second division. In his first season, 2004-05, he took the team back up with promotion. In 2005-06 Celta finished sixth in La Liga and qualified for the UEFA Cup. The following campaign proved harder and the club dismissed him after matchday 29 of the 2006-07 season. Between 2005 and 2013 he also coached the Galicia regional team, sharing the bench with Arsenio Iglesias in the friendly matches the side played.

First spell at Deportivo

On 11 February 2013 he took over Deportivo de La Coruña, then bottom of the top flight. The team improved in the second half of the season but could not avoid relegation. He stayed on in the second division and on 31 May 2014 sealed promotion back to La Liga. Even so, the club parted company with him in July 2014, before the next pre-season had started.

Return to Mallorca

In January 2016 he went back to Mallorca, then in the second division and in trouble near the bottom of the table. He secured survival at the end of the 2015-16 season. Results did not follow in the next campaign and he was dismissed on 6 December 2016, with the team in seventeenth place.

Second spell at Riazor

In late 2019 he returned to Deportivo, who were near the foot of the second division. The team strung together a run of wins after his arrival, but in 2020 they suffered relegation to Segunda División B, in a season overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the postponed match against Fuenlabrada. He remained in charge in the third tier until the club announced his dismissal on 11 January 2021, the day his second spell at Deportivo came to an end.