Pedro Munitis Álvarez is a Spanish retired footballer who played mainly as a forward, and the manager of CD Badajoz. He was one of the shortest players in La Liga, and was best known for his fighting spirit. His professional career was mainly associated with Racing de Santander – he also represented Real Madrid for two years – and he played 447 top flight matches over 17 seasons, scoring 43 goals. A Spain international in the late 1990s/early 2000s, Munitis represented the country at Euro 2000.
Playing career
Club
Born in Santander, Cantabria, Munitis played in three separate periods for hometown Racing de Santander. He first appeared with its first team on 22 January 1995, in a 0–0 home draw against Real Sociedad. After a loan to CD Badajoz and scoring 14 goals in 72 league games with Racing from 1998 to 2000, Munitis attracted attention from La Liga giants Real Madrid, who signed him for £6.8 million. He would be relatively used during his two seasons with the capital club, helping it to one league and one UEFA Champions League. Munitis spent the 2002–03 seasonon loan at Racing Santander, notably netting against Real Madrid in a 2–0 home win on 19 October 2002. In the following off-season, he was purchased up by Deportivo de La Coruña on a free transfer; after a poor first year he would be one of the Galicia side's most important attacking players, also being used as a left winger, providing rest for veteran captainFran and being his replacement when he retired at the end of 2004–05. Munitis returned to Racing in July 2006, forming an interesting attacking partnership with gigantic Serbian Nikola Žigić in his first season and helping it achieve a first ever qualification to the UEFA Cup in his second. On 19 April 2009 he played his 200th league match for the club, at RCD Espanyol. In the 2009–10 campaign, 34-year-old Munitis was again an undisputed starter, but did not manage to find the net in 29 league appearances, and his season was over during Racing's 3–1 home win against Espanyol due to a knee injury, on 14 April 2010; at that time he ranked second in assists, only trailing FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi. On 17 October 2010, after more than one year without scoring, Munitis netted from 30 metres for the only goal of the home fixture against UD Almería. During the season, he again featured prominently in the starting XI, under both Miguel Ángel Portugal and his successor Marcelino García Toral, the latter returned to the club after nearly three years; in the following campaign he failed to score in 32 matches, and Racing returned to the second level after one decade, with the player announcing shortly after his decision to leave his main club.
Still not having announced his retirement, Munitis began his managerial career, with women's football clubSD Reocín. In 2014 he was appointed at Club Bansander, taking charge of the youth squads. Munitis returned to Racing on 4 March 2015, being appointed assistant manager along with former teammate Gonzalo Colsa. After their relegation, he took the reins of the team in Segunda División B and won the group, but left in June 2016 following elimination by Cádiz CF in the playoffs. On 17 October 2016, Munitis succeeded Manolo Herrero as manager of newly relegated SD Ponferradina, with Colsa as his assistant. He was sacked five months later with the team lying in sixth in the third tier, having won exactly a third of his games. Munitis returned to third-level management on 26 March 2018, when he was hired by UCAM Murcia CF until the end of the season. Despite missing his objective of a play-off place, he was given another year in the job. He was dismissed on 29 April 2019 with the team still in contention for the play-offs with three rounds to go, and replaced by Juan Merino. On 4 February 2020, Munitis succeeded Mehdi Nafti at Badajoz, where he had played over two decades ago.
