Unai Emery: What The New Arsenal Boss Does When He’s Not Coaching

Unai Emery has become the name on lips of every football fan around the world, no as if he won the World Cup  or any other major trophy.

But his appointment as the new Arsenal boss has come as a shock for most fans, following weeks of speculation about the vacant position that was occupied by Arsene Wenger for 22 years, and he is expected to return the club to their former days of glory.

Let’s take a look at what Unai Emery does outside the field of play.

Hondarribia Alarde Festival 

Born in the border city of Hondarribia, Gipuzoka; a city that shares border with France. The former Sevilla boss never misses his hometown’s biggest fiesta – Hondarribia Alarde. Every September  8, thousands of people across the region travel to the Basque town to commemorate a bloody siege by 25,000 French soliders in 1638, which left just 300 survivors.

His cousin,  Inaki Artola joked: “It is something he keeps to every year.

“I reckon that when he is praying on the touchline he must be saying ‘please let the date fall on a day when I don’t have training so that I can go to the festival.”

Beach-walking

Asides attending the festival, Unai Emery is also fond of taking a walk, especially on the beach. During his time at Paris Saint Germaine, he was frequently seen walking along the Champs Elysees.

Racquet-sport padel and Chess lover

Outside the field of play, Emery loves playing padel and Chess; During his time at Sevilla and Valencia, the Spaniard often play padel against his players as way of switching off from football.

Emery once told World Soccer magazine : “I love the strategy, the sense of planning and out-thinking an opponent.”