José Antonio Vicuña Ochandorena, commonly known as Kibu Vicuña or simply Kibu, is a Spanish former professional footballer and a manager who is currently the head coach of Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian top division League Indian Super League. He also holds Polish citizenship.
Coaching career
He first coached a team when he was only 16. His teacher at the El Redin school, Pedro Matas, took him out of the class one autumn morning and asked him to train the junior players of the school. That's how it all started. Later on, He used to play for the University of Navarra and coach the junior players. One day his University team coach, Goyo Maneru, had to take leave for personal reasons and he asked him to take charge of the team. In his last season in the university, he coached players like Raul Garcia, Nacho Monreal, Jon Erice and Oier Sanjurjo. He still have good relations with them. When he was in charge of the Osasuna youth team, current Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta trained under him. He sent him a congratulatory message after when he became I-League champions with Mohun Bagan. Kibu Vicuña managed a number of clubs in his native Spain and Poland during his coaching career. For most of his coaching career he worked as the assistant of Jan Urban in Osasuna and Poland clubs.
In May, Oleg Vasilenko was fired, and in 2018 June kibu appointed as the head coach of Lithuanian club FK Riteriai. He worked with the team in the Europa League tournament, but left in October and went to Wisła Płock.
Wisła Płock
On 10 October 2018 he appointed as the head coach of polish club Wisła Płock. He left the club on April 3, 2019.
Mohun Bagan
In May 2019, Kibu had signed a one-year deal for Mohun Bagan. He won the I-League in his maiden season with Mohun Bagan. After the alignment of ATK and Mohun Bagan new management decide ATK head coach Antonio López Habas as the coach of the new entity and Kibu's contract was not extended.
On 22 April 2020 he was appointed as the new head coach of Kerala Blasters.
Personal life
Kibu Vicuna was born in business family, his family owns a steel factory in Zizurkil, a town in Northern Spain but he chose to work in the football field. Kibu Vicuna opted for the latter. His parents are in San Sebastian and brothers are in Pamplona in Spain. Vicuna's father's name is Jose Antonio. Vicuna's wife, Kasia Bielecka, is in Warsaw Poland, she is a Polish woman. In an interview he said that she came to study in Pamplona, "We met and now we have been together for last eight years. It’s an interesting story. I am Spanish, she is Polish and one Irishman, Eoin Tuckey, helped us come closer. Eoin is our common friend and one day he told me that Kasia wanted to meet me. I took her phone number from Eoin, fixed an appointment and met her. Both of us like to travel and explore." Outside football he told that "I go to the gym, watch movies, swim and play badminton. Most of the time though, I watch football matches. I have read Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open more than once, it is inspirational. I liked Guardiola’s autobiography — Another Way of Winning — too. I read psychology and management books. Sometimes, I read newspapers. I also worked as a journalist earlier in my life. I did a management course from Bournemouth University. I went there to learn better English. By the way, I forgot to tell you, Back to Africa is my favourite movie. I like to cook". When in an interview asked about his relationship with current Sevilla FC coach Julen Lopetegui He said that "He is a bit senior to me and a good friend of my elder brother, Marcelino. Actually, his parents and my parents were friends. They used to travel together during vacations. When he was in charge of FC Porto, I went to Porto and watched his style of coaching from close for two weeks. When he was in charge of the Spanish national team, then also we used to talk abouta lot of things almost regularly. After I came here, he wanted to know about the interest level about the game here".
