Manu Sotelo has joined Brentford FC as First Team Goalkeeper Coach. The 39-year-old will be part of the First Team coaching staff for the upcoming 2020/21 season. He will take up the role in the coming weeks ahead of the First Team players returning for a short pre-season ahead of the start of the new campaign in September.

Manu joins The Bees having left Al Ahli SC, in Doha, earlier this year. He has spent most of his career so far in Spain but does have experience of working in different leagues. This includes a spell working with Aitor Karanka at Nottingham Forest during the 2018/19 season.

Rasmus Ankersen, Brentford FC Co-Director of Football, said: “Manu will bring unique experience to the Club. He knows English football very well, having previously worked in the Championship, and at the same time he has worked at the highest level in other football cultures. We were impressed with him when we met him, and now we look forward to welcoming him at the Club.”

Manu is a UEFA A Licensed coach who has also earned the Spanish FA Goalkeeper Coach qualification. He started his coaching career in the Spanish third tier with Alondras Club de Fútbol, where he worked with the youth teams before taking over as First Team Goalkeeper Coach. After spells at Sociedad Deportiva Negreira and Cruceiro do Hío Football Club, he moved to Real Club Celta de Vigo.

Manu spent five years at Celta, working initially with the Under-19 side. In his final season at Celta he was Assistant First Team Coach and Academy Goalkeeper Coach, he then moved on to Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña, where he spent the next five years as Goalkeeper Coach, with a focus on the development of the players in that position. He was at Deportivo when they won promotion to the Spanish top tier in 2013 and established themselves back at that level for the next five years. Manu left Deportivo in 2018 and had spells at Forest and in Qatar before moving to West London.