In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Cuadrat and the second or maternal family name is Xiqués.

Carles Cuadrat
Carles Cuadrat 2.jpg
Carles Cuadrat at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, in Bengaluru (2018)
Personal information
Full name Carles Cuadrat Xiqués
Date of birth (1968-10-28) 28 October 1968 (age 53)
Place of birth Barcelona, Spain
Position(s) Left back
Youth career
1978–1988 Barcelona
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1987–1988 Barcelona C 11 (0)
1988–1989 Barcelona B 0 (0)
1989–1996 Gavà 187 (33)
1990–1997 Sabadell 32 (1)
1997–1998 Gavà 1 (0)
Total 231 (34)
National team
1985–1988 Spain U18 14 (1)
Teams managed
2009–2010 Galatasaray (Conditioning coach)
2011–2013 Saudi Arabia (assistant)
2014–2015 El Salvador (assistant)
2016–2017 Bengaluru FC (assistant)
2018–2021 Bengaluru FC
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Carles Cuadrat Xiqués (born 28 October 1968) is a Spanish football manager, who last managed Indian Super League club Bengaluru FC.[1] A former player, Cuadrat played as a left-defender for FC Barcelona reserve teams as well as the Spanish youth teams.

Playing career[edit]

Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Cuadrat played for various clubs in the Spanish second division. He joined La Masia at age of ten in 1978. He played for all the FC Barcelona youth teams between 1978 and 1988. Cuadrat was also part of the FC Barcelona side that won the U19 Spanish Cup in 1986 and 1987.[2] In 1988, Cuadrat played for FC Barcelona's first team in couple of friendlies under then head coach Luis Aragones alongside the likes of Gary Lineker and Bernd Schuster at the Camp Nou.[3] He played fourteen times for Spanish national youth teams (U15 & U18) during his youth years most notably finishing third in the 1985 UEFA European Under-16 Championship.

Cuadrat played for Catalonian clubs FC Barcelona B, CF Gavà and CE Sabadell in Segunda División B between 1988 and 1998. With his playing career cut short by injury in 1998 at the age of 30, Cuadrat began working as a Physical Coach for the FC Barcelona Youth Academy.[2]

Coaching career[edit]

During his second stint as a player at CF Gavà he also worked as director at CF Gava Youth Academy between 1995 and 1998. In 1998 he joined the FC Barcelona under–15 team as assistant and physical coach under Albert Benaiges. He worked as coach and physical trainer for various FC Barcelona youth teams in years followed.[2]

In 2009 Cuadrat joined former FC Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard's technical staff as Physical trainer at the Turkish giants Galatasaray.[4] He was also in the technical staff Rijkaard at Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2013.[5]

In 2014, when Albert Roca, who was assistant coach to Frank Rijkaard at Galatasaray and Saudi Arabia, became manager of El Salvador, he enlisted service of Cuadrat as assistant coach.[6]

He moved to then I-League side Bengaluru FC, who moved to the Indian Super League in 2017, with Roca in 2016 as an assistant coach.[7] During his two-year stint, the club won the Federation Cup in 2017, Super Cup in 2018 apart from being the first Indian side to reach the AFC Cup final in 2016.[8]

On 29 December 2017 Carles Cuadrat parted ways with the club by mutual consent owing to health concerns.[9][10]

After Albert Roca's departure as head coach at the end of 2017–18 season, Bengaluru FC appointed Cuadrat as head coach for 2018–19 season.[1] He led them to their maiden Indian Super League title in his first season as head coach.[11] Having won the 2018–19 Indian Super League final 1–0 against FC Goa, Cuadrat's Bengaluru FC side became the only team in the history of the League to have finished in first place in the regular league and win the title in the same year.[12][13]

In 2019–20, Cuadrat took the team back to the playoffs in the Indian Super League for a third consecutive season, being the only club in the Indian Super League to reach the playoff in every appearance. The feat also made Bengaluru FC the first team to reach the playoff as defending champions, since ATK in the 2015–16 edition of the tournament. Defending champions had failed to make it to the top four the following season, with ATK (in 2015) and Bengaluru FC (in 2020) the only teams to do so.[14]

However, it was ATK that stopped Bengaluru's charge to the final with an aggregate win of 3–2 in the playoffs.[15] The Kolkata side would go on to claim the title, winning 3–1 against Chennaiyin FC in the final.[16]

Under Cuadrat, Bengaluru has set many Indian Super League and club records:

  1. In 2018–19, an 11-match unbeaten run made Bengaluru FC the team with the longest unbeaten streak in the Indian Super League.[citation needed]
  2. In 2018–19, Bengaluru FC won six matches in a row, another feat unmatched in the Indian Super League.[17]
  3. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu's 11 clean sheets in 2019–20 means that Bengaluru hold the League record for most clean sheets in a single season.[18]
  4. From December 2017 to December 2019, Bengaluru went a League-record 17 matches unbeaten at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, the longest such run in the Indian Super League.[19]
  5. Cuadrat's BFC side went 385 minutes without conceding a goal at home, with FC Goa's 61st-minute strike on 3 January followed by ATK's 86th-minute goal on 22 February, over a run of four League games.[20]
  6. Bengaluru FC's biggest ever win was recorded under Carles Cuadrat in the 2019–20 campaign when the Blues beat Paro FC 9–1 at the Kanteerava in the AFC Cup qualifiers.[21]

On 6 January 2021, it was announced that Carles Cuadrat and Bengaluru FC have parted ways on mutual consent.[22]

In 2021–2022 season he joined the recently promoted Aris Limassol (founded in 1930) of Cyprus,[23] achieving with the team best season of their history,[24] qualifying for the first time for the play-off for the Title and getting a place in UEFA European competition also for the first time in the history of the club.[25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Carles Cuadrat appointed Bengaluru FC head coach". Goal.com. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Las Gaunas. FC Barcelona 6 – Real Madrid 3, Final Copa del Rey Juvenil". fiasports.com. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Carles Cuadrat – Playing under Luis Aragones".
  4. ^ "Galatasaray and coach Frank Rijkaard go their separate ways". goalzz.com. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  5. ^ Aragón, El Periódico de. "El breve regreso de Frank Rijkaard". El Periódico de Aragón (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  6. ^ "PressReader.com – Connecting People Through News". pressreader.com. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  7. ^ "CARLES CUADRAT WILL BE ASSISTANT TO ALBERT ROCA". theindianleague.in. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  8. ^ "Bengaluru FC first Indian club to reach AFC Cup final".
  9. ^ Aravind (3 December 2017). "Bengaluru FC part ways with assistant coach Carles Cuadrat". mykhel.com. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Looking back at how much this club has achieved, I can only smile: Cuadrat". BengaluruFC.com. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  11. ^ "Bheke header lands BFC the title". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  12. ^ Nayak, Nicolai. "ISL final: Cuadrat's Bengaluru FC implement plans to perfection against FC Goa to clinch title". Scroll.in. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  13. ^ Warrier, Sajith B. (1 March 2019). "ISL feature: Can Cuadrat do what Roca could not at Bengaluru FC?". Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  14. ^ Shukla, Kaushal. "Data check: ISL got more prolific and physical in 2019–20 season as Indian goal tally shrunk". Scroll.in. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  15. ^ "ISL: ATK Storm Into Third Final, Oust Champions Bengaluru FC 3–2 On Aggregate". Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  16. ^ "ATK best Chennaiyin in Hero ISL 2019–20 final to clinch record third title". Indian Super League. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. ^ "List of Indian Super League records and statistics", Wikipedia, 15 April 2020, retrieved 16 April 2020
  18. ^ Sportstar, Team. "ISL final: Valskis wins Golden Boot, Gurpreet takes Golden Glove". Sportstar. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  19. ^ "Setting it up in style". Deccan Herald. 1 February 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  20. ^ "Bengaluru results – Football, India". flashscore.com. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  21. ^ "Bengaluru FC romp to 9–1 win over Paro FC at Kanteerava". BengaluruFC.com. 1 February 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  22. ^ "ISL 2020-21: Bengaluru FC part ways with head coach Carles Cuadrat | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  23. ^ "Ο εγκέφαλος πίσω από τον Λιάσο".
  24. ^ ""Ιδιαίτερες ευχαριστίες στους φίλους και τους διοικούντες την Ανόρθωση / Είμαστε ο ΑΡΗΣ και είμαστε στην Ευρώπη"".
  25. ^ "Σπόλιαριτς: "Είχαμε πίστη και πήγαμε για το… The Last Dance"".

External links[edit]