José Riga

José Riga (born 30 July 1957) is a Belgian former football player and manager. He is currently the sporting director of URSL Visé.

José Riga
Personal information
Full name José Riga
Date of birth (1957-07-30) 30 July 1957
Place of birth Liège, Belgium
Club information
Current team
 URSL Visé (sporting director)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1974–1985 C.S. Visé
1985–1989 JS Haccourt
Teams managed
1991–1996 JS Haccourt
1996–2000 Espanola Liège
2000–2002 C.S. Visé
2002–2003 Sprimont Comblain Sport
2005–2008 R.A.E.C. Mons
2011–2012 Standard Liège
2014 Charlton Athletic
2014 Blackpool
2015 Standard Liège
2015 Metz
2016 Charlton Athletic
2016–2017 Cercle Brugge
2018 Club Africain
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Managerial career

In June 2012, he went to Qatar and joined the Aspire Academy (training centre). He gave his resignation at the beginning of 2013.

In October 2013, he signed a contract with the Italian club AC Milan and joined the youth teams’ technical staff. Together with Michel Bruyninckx, José Riga has been committed to improving the training concepts for the players, in particular with his CogiTraining method.

Today, José Riga keeps collaborating with the CogiTraining / SenseBall team in particular in order to implement the CogiTraining method in the specific competitive environment of a professional first team.

Charlton Athletic

Riga was appointed as manager of Charlton Athletic on 11 March 2014, one day after the sacking of their previous manager, Chris Powell, who had been dismissed when the club owner and Powell were unable to reach agreement over the long-term vision for the club. At the time Charlton were fourth from bottom of The Championship.[1] Riga was appointed the manager with a contract which lasted until the end of the 2013–14 season; the main task was to secure Championship football for Charlton. This was achieved on 29 April 2014 following a 3-1 home win against Watford.[2]

Blackpool

On 3 June 2014 it was reported that Riga had agreed to a deal to become manager of Blackpool, and was set to start the following week.[3] The following day, Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston confirmed that there was a verbal agreement in place.[4] On 11 June Riga was confirmed as Blackpool's new manager.[5] Three weeks later, newspaper reports claimed that Riga was unsettled and ready to quit Blackpool. Whilst the club and Riga did not comment, no coaching staff had been appointed and even though the club had just seven contracted players, no signings had been made. With so few players, no assistant or backroom staff appointed, and the squad due to report back on 30 June, Riga had to delay the start of pre-season training.[6]

On 9 July it was confirmed that, with still just eight players at the club, Riga had three backroom staff, all of whom had agreed to start working the previous week but had still not signed contracts.[7] Two days later it was stated that tensions were high at the club, and between Riga and Karl Oyston.[8] On 17 July, having already cancelled a pre-season trip to Spain to focus on signings, it was claimed that Riga's future was even more uncertain following reports of a dispute with Oyston over transfer policy.[9] Two days later Blackpool played a friendly away against Northern League Division One side Penrith, fielding five triallists in the starting line-up with two more on the substitutes bench and with just six fit registered players, the rest of the match day squad was made up of youth team players. Riga was given a standing ovation by the Blackpool fans. Then after the match it was reported that when the media requested to speak with Riga, he had told his staff and players not to give any interviews.[10] Having won only one of fifteen games in charge, Riga was sacked by Blackpool on 27 October 2014, becoming the club's second shortest-serving manager in their history, behind Michael Appleton.[11]

Standard Liège

On 2 February 2015, Riga returned to Standard Liège in Belgium, where he was re-appointed as manager following Ivan Vukomanović's departure.[12] He took charge of his first game on 6 February 2015, a league match against Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz, which ended in a 3–0 win for Standard.[13] Towards the end of the season, Riga announced he would not be prolonging his contract with Standard. Slavoljub Muslin was announced as his successor on 5 June 2015.[14]

Return to Charlton Athletic

On 14/01/2016, Riga was appointed head coach of Charlton Athletic for the second time. His first win came away at Rotherham United in a 1-4 victory. Following the relegation he left the club and was replaced by Russell Slade.

Cercle Brugge

Riga was appointed head coach at Cercle Brugge in the Belgian First Division B on 1 November 2016 but was sacked in October 2017.

URSL Visé

On 14 October 2019, Riga was appointed sporting director of URSL Visé.[15]

Managerial statistics
As of 7 May 2016
Team Nat From To Record
PWDLWin %
R.A.E.C. Mons Belgium 6 June 2005 28 January 2008 92 35 22 35 038.04
Standard Liège Belgium 28 June 2011 13 May 2012 46 23 14 9 050.00
Charlton Athletic England 11 March 2014 27 May 2014 16 7 3 6 043.75
Blackpool England 11 June 2014 27 October 2014 15 1 3 11 006.67
Standard Liège Belgium 2 February 2015 5 June 2015 15 7 2 6 046.67
Metz France June 2015 December 2015 23 10 6 7 043.48
Charlton Athletic England January 2016 7 May 2016 20 5 5 10 025.00
Total 227 88 55 84 038.77
gollark: I mean, generally speaking, because sometimes preventing people from dying now incurs significant costs of various kinds.
gollark: I don't wear masks, although I would if I actually *had any* and was going out.
gollark: "we can't immediately totally fix it and it's not a problem which has affected me yet so let's ignore it"
gollark: That is a... food product or something... which exists, alright.
gollark: Besides, if you could somehow control matter with love, people would have isolated the property and made automatic love generators.

References
  1. "José Riga appointed Charlton head coach after Chris Powell is sacked". The Guardian. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  2. Virtue, Rob (29 April 2014). "Charlton: Jose Riga uncertain on future". www.wharf.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  3. Watt, William (3 June 2014). "Pool agree Riga deal". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  4. Watt, William (4 June 2014). "Oyston: Riga signals fresh start for Blackpool". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  5. "Jose Riga: Blackpool confirm ex-Charlton Athletic boss as manager" - BBC Sport, 11 June 2014
  6. Watt, William (30 June 2014). "More talk of Pool unrest". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  7. Watt, William (9 July 2014). "The coaches with no contracts". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  8. Watt, William (11 July 2014). "Midfielder returns in attempt to earn Pool contract". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  9. "Jose Riga: Blackpool set to decide manager's future by Saturday". BBC Sport. 17 July 2014.
  10. Watt, Will (21 July 2014). "Riga's Bloomfield Road blackout". Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  11. "Jose Riga: Championship strugglers Blackpool sack manager". BBC Sport. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  12. Eeckhaut, Dimitri (2 February 2015). "Riga volgt Vukomanovic bij Standard, Legear officieel terug". De Morgen (in Dutch). Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  13. "Le Standard de Riga enfonce le RMP et entre dans le Top 3". Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (in French). 6 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  14. "Muslin: "Standard zal offensief voetbal brengen"" [Muslin: "Standard will play attacking football"] (in Dutch). sporza.be. 2015-06-05.
  15. José Riga de retour à Visé comme manager, rtbf.be, 14 October 2019
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