Who is Ruben Selles? New Spaniard manager of the Southampton club- Know 10 things about his coaching career

Ruben Selles was named as the new manager of the Premier League strugglers Southampton on Friday, February 24. The 39-year-old will now manage the team until the end of the season. The Spanish football coach has been appointed as the manager of the club after replacing Nathan Jones, who was in charge for just three months. Currently, Southampton is at the bottom of the English top flight. They have secured only five wins in their 23 league games so far this season.

The club issued a brief statement, “Southampton Football Club can today confirm that Ruben Selles has been appointed as men's first team manager until the end of the 2022/23 season.”

Former Luton boss Jones endured a torrid time after taking over at St Mary's in November following the dismissal of Ralph Hasenhuettl. Selles was a first-team coach at the club and took charge as interim manager as Southampton beat Chelsea last weekend. This match result left the club three points away from safety. He is now preparing the team to face second-bottom Leeds at Elland Road on Saturday.

Selles's appointment comes after Southampton failed to agree ona deal with former Leeds boss Jesse Marsch, who was sacked from his job earlier this month. Last week's 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge gave the Saints their first league win since a 2-1 triumph against Everton on January 14.

Who is Ruben Selles? Here are 10 points about his coaching career

1. Ruben is a Spanish football coach who is now appointed as the interim manager of Premier League club Southampton.

2. He has coaching experience with teams like Greece, Russia, Denmark, Spain, Azerbaijan and England.

3. He has a Master’s degree in Sports & Physiology from the University of Valencia. He graduated from UEFA’s Pro Licence programme at the age of 25.

4. He began his coaching career as a fitness coach at the Greek club Aris Thessaloniki. He then performed the same role for the Villarreal youth team in 2009.

5. In 2010, he travelled to Russia and worked as assistant manager to Aleksander Pobegalov at Shinnik Yaroslavl.

6. Sellés then spent two years at the Norwegian club Strømsgodset Toppfotball, working as Chief Data Analyst.

7. In 2015, Sellés was appointed assistant to manager Gurban Gurbanov at Qarabağ.

8. In July 2018, Sellés joined Danish club Aarhus GF, assisting manager David Nielsen for two seasons, helping AGF to their first trophy win in over 20 years (Winners of the prestigious Atlantic Cup title in Portugal), before leaving to manage the Valencia U18 squad.

9. On 1 January 2021, Sellés joined F.C. Copenhagen as assistant manager to Jess Thorup.

10. On 10 June 2022, Sellés departed Copenhagen to join Premier League club Southampton, as assistant to Ralph Hasenhüttl. On 7 November 2022, Hasenhüttl was sacked by Southampton, and Sellés was placed in caretaker charge of the club.