On Monday, the Al-Shabab club management ended the contract with Spaniard Javier Calleja (Calija) to take charge of the first football team during the next season, according to “Sports” sources.
He is expected to take the lead in the youth team, following he technically supervised the Spanish team Deportivo Alaves last season and led it for regarding nine months before being dispensed with due to the results, despite the renewal of his contract for two seasons.
Calleja, who speaks Spanish (Calija), took over the reins of the technical staff of Deportivo Alaves on April 5, 2021 AD, to succeed with him in staying in the First Division, which prompted the Spanish club officials to extend his contract for two seasons in the hope of achieving other victories, but the negative results I hastened the decision to dispense with his services and terminate his contract, following several months of renewal, specifically on December 28, 2021 AD.
Calleja (Calija) withstood Barcelona and Seville, following denying them a victory over Deportivo Alaves when he played once morest them in their strongholds Camp Nou and Sanchez Pizjuan.
Neither luck nor results were on the side of Calleja (Calija) during the last five matches he led in the Spanish League, where he came out with one draw, four losses in addition to leaving the King’s Cup competitions at the hands of the Linares Deportivo team.
Calleja (Calija) spent several technical periods within the Spanish club Villarreal, where he led the youth team during the period from 2012 to 2017, following which he moved to train the Villarreal B team and took over the first team in the same season 2017-2018, to end his contract and then return once more in the season The next 2019-2020 AD, and his contract was terminated in July 2020, and he returned to training in April 2021 as coach of Deportivo Alaves.
In terms of playing football, Javier Calleja (Calija) represented several teams, most notably Real Madrid (c), Almeria, Onda, Villarreal, Malaga, before spending his last term in the ranks of Osasuna, where he ended his field career.