Aitor Larrazábal

Player

Larrazábal was born in Bilbao, Biscay. Having joined Athletic Bilbao's youth ranks at 11, he started playing professionally with its reserves in Segunda División, and made his first-team debut on 2 September 1990 in a 0–1 away loss against CD Tenerife, finishing his first year in La Liga with 18 games.

From then onwards, Larrazábal was an undisputed starter for the Basques, scoring and assisting alike. In the 1997–98 season, as Bilbao finished runner-up, he scored a career-best seven league goals, being instrumental as his team qualified for the subsequent edition of the UEFA Champions League, where he featured, for instance, in both group stage draws against Juventus FC, although they eventually ranked last.

After the emergence of Asier del Horno (another Lezama youth graduate) in the 2002–03 campaign, Larrazábal still featured prominently in his last two seasons combined – 36 matches, three goals – but eventually retired from the game in May 2004 at the age of 33, after a two-decade link with a sole club.

Coach

Larrazábal subsequently became a coach: after starting in amateur football, he joined lowly SD Lemona (Basque Country) from Segunda División B in 2009, leading the side to the sixth position in his first year and narrowly missing out on play-off qualification. After a second season in Lemoa in which the team reached the final of the Copa Federación de España, he returned to Athletic Bilbao to take up a position as sporting director, following the election of former teammate Josu Urrutia as president in July 2011.

In 2013, a reorganisation of functions at the club saw Larrazábal take over responsibility for its youth system, with José María Amorrortu (the director of football) focusing on the senior team. The former resigned from the position in summer 2015, citing professional differences and a desire to return to mangerial roles.

In April 2016, Larrazábal became manager of third-tier Marbella FC for a short spell, and although they only collected two points from his three games in charge, it was enough to successfully steer them away from the relegation zone by the end of the campaign. For the following season he moved back to the Basque Country, taking control of fellow league side SD Amorebieta; they escaped relegation by a single point.

In June 2017, Larrazábal was appointed at Barakaldo CF in the same division.

As of 20 August 2017

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record								Ref
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Gatika		1 July 2008	30 June 2009	7001340000000000000♠34	7001160000000000000♠16	7001110000000000000♠11	7000700000000000000♠7	7001380000000000000♠38	7001250000000000000♠25	+13	07001470600000000000♠47.06
Lemona		1 July 2009	30 June 2011	7001770000000000000♠77	7001260000000000000♠26	7001290000000000000♠29	7001220000000000000♠22	7001950000000000000♠95	7001720000000000000♠72	+23	07001337700000000000♠33.77
Marbella		26 April 2016	15 June 2016	7000300000000000000♠3	5000000000000000000♠0	7000200000000000000♠2	7000100000000000000♠1	7000700000000000000♠7	7000900000000000000♠9	−2	005000000000000000000♠0.00
Amorebieta		15 June 2016	5 June 2017	7001410000000000000♠41	7001140000000000000♠14	7001100000000000000♠10	7001170000000000000♠17	7001520000000000000♠52	7001530000000000000♠53	−1	07001341500000000000♠34.15
Barakaldo		5 June 2017	Present	7000100000000000000♠1	7000100000000000000♠1	5000000000000000000♠0	5000000000000000000♠0	7000300000000000000♠3	5000000000000000000♠0	+3	7002100000000000000♠100.00
Career Total				7002156000000000000♠156	7001570000000000000♠57	7001520000000000000♠52	7001470000000000000♠47	7002195000000000000♠195	7002159000000000000♠159	+36	07001365400000000000♠36.54	—

Larrazábal's son, Gaizka, was also a footballer. A right winger by position, in summer 2017 he joined Athletic Bilbao (being assigned to the reserves) from SD Zamudio, having played against the Amorebieta team managed by his father during the preceding season.