Carles Cuadrat Barcelona, 28 de Octubre 1968
I started my journey to becoming a professional footballer as a small boy at FC Barcelona’s La Masia, where I had the opportunity to play, and later to be a Coach, for more than 20 years.
Football was always going to be a part of me even after I retired as a player, which is when I took to working as a Physical Trainer and Coach in teams across Europe [FC Barcelona, Galatasaray SK, Aris Limassol, FC Midtjylland ], Asia [Bengaluru FC] and also with the National Teams of Saudi Arabia and El Salvador.
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The move to becoming a Physical Trainer began in 1999 in the lower rung teams at FC Barcelona where I had the chance to work on players like Iniesta, Sergio Garcia or Bojan Krkic who would go on to represent Spain National Team and become European and World Cup Champions.
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In 2009, I began a new stint as Physical Trainer at Turkish club Galatasaray SK where I was part of the Technical Staff headed by Frank Rijkaard along with Johan Neeskens and Albert Roca.
After two years in Turkey, I joined Rijkaard and Roca to Saudi Arabia, where the former took over as Head Coach for the national team. Part of our assignment there was contesting in the Group Stages for qualification to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
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Once Frank Rijkaard announced his definitive retirement as a Manager, I was handed the role of the 2nd Coach as part of Roca’s stint as manager with the El Salvador National Team, where we participated in the qualification phase for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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Football brought me to India next, in 2016, when I joined Albert as Assistant Coach again, with Bengaluru FC. In our first season with the club we won the Federation Cup 2017 and went on to create history by becoming the only Indian club to make the final of an AFC competition. In our second season, we went on to win the Super Cup 2018.
After two seasons at the club, in July 2018 I made my debut as Head Coach to lead the team to win the Indian Super League (CHAMPIONS ISL 2019) for the first time in its history, adding several records never reached in the competition (team with the highest number of unbeaten matches, 11 consecutive without losing, and team with the highest number of consecutive victories, with a total of 6). In addition, we became the first team to win the regular league and the title playoffs in the same season, something that had never happened before.
After 5 years at the club, in 2021 I finished my time at Bengaluru FC, having always qualify the team to play continental competition and playoffs for the League Trophy. We add to the previous records that of being 2 whole seasons unbeaten in our Stadium (17 consecutive games without losing at home), and victory with the highest goals in the history of the Club, with a 9-1 against Paro FC in the preliminary round of the 2019/2020 AFC Cup.
At the beginning of the 2021/2022 season, I join Aris Limassol FC, just promoted to the Cyprus 1st Division, helping to qualify the team for the first time in its history to the Championship playoffs and also getting a place in UEFA European competition for the first time in the history of a club founded in 1930.
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In these last two projects I participated in the best seasons in the history of both clubs. With Bengaluru FC we won the 2019 League, and with Aris Limassol FC we managed to reach the Conference League in 2022.
With me working as a part of the Staff, either as a Head Coach or as an assistant, the teams have always ended up qualifying for continental competition the following Season, whether in Europe (2009 & 2010 Galatasaray, 2022 Aris, 2023 Midtjylland) or Asia (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 Bengaluru & 2024 East Bengal). In the case of East Bengal FC, we have achieved that place in Asia after almost a decade, since the club had not played in the AFC Cup since 2015.
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In the 2022-23 season I have been working as an Assistant Coach and Set piece specialist at FC Midtjyilland in Denmark, having the opportunity to participate in the club's best ever European season. The team managed to face Feyernood, Lazio and Sturm Graz in the best Europa League group stage in the club's history (8 points), only falling in the playoff round of 1/16 to Sporting Lisbon.
Since June 1th, 2023, I am the Head Coach of East Bengal of Calcutta, with a 2-year project to build a competitive team that qualifies for the playoff for the Indian Super League title for the first time in its history.
In the first months at charge, the team has managed to reach the Final of the oldest official cup competition on the Asian continent, the prestigious Durand Cup, being the first Final the team has reached after 5 years.
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After a competition with plenty of victories, both in the group stage and in the subsequent qualifiers, the team wins the
SuperCup 2024 in its second Final of the season, thus managing to win a Title after doing so for the last time 12 years before (Federation Cup in 2012).
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