The former player and captain of Athletic is making a new move in his career in sports management. He is concluding his two-year tenure as sports director at Gernika, a team that secured its permanence in Segunda RFEF last weekend, to join Sestao River. This club also competes in the fourth-tier state category, and he will assume the same position within the green-and-black entity. Sestao River failed to achieve its goal of at least reaching the play-offs for promotion to Primera RFEF, an option now unattainable despite two matchdays remaining in the regular league season.

The new sports director replaces his predecessor, who was appointed by the Board of Directors led by Ángel Castro last summer after he left the dugout at SD Logroñés to return to the team he managed between 2003 and 2008. However, he failed to meet expectations and resigned as River's sports director on March 17, with the green-and-black team immersed in a poor dynamic that had cost the coach his job. He was replaced by an in-house coach, who also failed to steer the team, which was expected to achieve higher goals, back on track.

The former player, who played 445 official matches for Athletic, has the mission to lead the sports project of the Ezkerraldea club for the upcoming season. To do so, he will first have to choose his preferred coach for the bench and then build a squad that is expected to feature numerous new additions compared to the current one.

After hanging up his boots, the new sports director worked as a coach in an initial phase, before joining Athletic's technical management in 2011 after Josu Urrutia's electoral victory. He left Lezama in 2015 to subsequently manage several teams, also in both coaching and sports director capacities.