Athletic Club has officially announced that Bittor Llopis will be the coach of Bilbao Athletic for the next two seasons. The club continues to reveal the names of the coaches for the various Lezama teams.
The coach from Getxo is promoted to the first reserve team after a "notable job" at Basconia over the last three campaigns. His "handling of youth players closest to the elite" was further demonstrated this year when he managed Athletic in the Youth League, where the team was eliminated on penalties by Eintracht Frankfurt after a strong first phase.
Llopis replaces Jokin Aranbarri at the helm of Bilbao Athletic, whose contract was not renewed by the Bilbao club after two seasons. Aranbarri will coach Eibar next season. Llopis arrived at Lezama four years ago to coach the División de Honor Juvenil, with whom he was a Copa runner-up. He then succeeded Carlos Gurpegui at Basconia, finishing second in his debut. The following year, he achieved promotion to Segunda Federación by winning the Tercera league title. This season, he has kept the team in the demanding category, finishing tenth thanks to "a magnificent evolution in the second half of the season".
Before joining Lezama, the 38-year-old coach from Getxo had previous coaching experience at Deportivo Alavés (five seasons: three in youth categories and two with San Ignacio in Tercera) and at Leioa (ten years, working through all categories).
