Beñat San José wins the race for Vallecas

Rayo Vallecano

When everything pointed to Jagoba Arrasate, the Rayo Vallecano has changed course at the last moment. The Madrid club already knows who will take charge of its bench next season, and the chosen man will be Beñat San José, a move that has even surprised the coaching market.

The deal will force Rayo to pay the 400,000 euros in the termination clause that ties the coach to Eibar. A sum the franjirrojos are willing to cover in order to secure the arrival of a coach whose profile has particularly impressed club president Raúl Martín Presa.

The decision is striking because talks with Arrasate were well advanced. In fact, both sides had reached an agreement in principle and shared a common vision for the project. However, the contract was never signed. In Vallecas, they kept weighing options until the very end and ultimately opted for an alternative they believed was more suited to the style of play they want to implement.

Trained in the Real Sociedad youth system, he built much of his career outside Spain, amassing experience in Saudi Arabia, Chile, Bolivia, Belgium and Mexico before returning to domestic football.

His time at clubs such as Al-Ittihad, Universidad Católica, Bolívar or Atlas allowed him to develop his own footballing identity, shaped by bold teams, with initiative and a starring role on the ball. Precisely that proposal has been one of the factors that carried the most weight in the final decision by the Madrid club.

The Basque coach arrived at the Eibar in February 2025 and will now face the biggest challenge of his career. At 46, he will have his first experience as a head coach in LaLiga, and in such a demanding setting as Vallecas.

With the choice already made, Rayo brings an end to several weeks of uncertainty and begins a new stage in which it hopes that Beñat San José will maintain the team's competitiveness and bring a recognizable identity to one of LaLiga's most distinctive projects.