West Ham appoint former Spain manager Lopetegui as head coach

West Ham United have appointed former Spain and Real Madrid manager Julen Lopetegui as their new head coach, the Premier League club said on Thursday.

Lopetegui, who previously coached Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League and will take charge of West Ham on July 1, replaces David Moyes, who left the London club this month.

West Ham finished ninth in the standings with 52 points and missed out on qualification for European football next season.

"My ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims and to encourage and improve the players, the team, and to compete because football is about this – to compete," Lopetegui, 57, said in a statement.

"I am where I want to be. I am here because I want to be here and for us it was a fantastic day when we closed our agreement here because our commitment is 100 per cent to be here."

Lopetegui, who was at Barcelona and Real Madrid as a player but featured mostly for Logrones and Rayo Vallecano, began coaching in Spain's youth set-up before spells at Vallecano in the Spanish second tier and Portuguese club Porto.

His most successful stint in club management came at Sevilla, where he spent three years in charge, leading the LaLiga outfit to the Europa League title in 2020.