What would Albert Riera bring to Frankfurt if appointed manager?

Of all the destinations Albert Riera might have chosen for his next step in management, the Bundesliga is perhaps the least likely.

Over the course of a peripatetic playing career, the 43-year-old Spaniard counted Mallorca, Espanyol, Bordeaux, Liverpool and Udinese among his employers. Among the five major European leagues, the German top flight was a rare omission from Riera’s CV. It is therefore ironic that the German top flight seems likely to provide the setting for the latest chapter in the former Spain international’s coaching career.

Riera, currently in his second spell as manager of Slovenian PrvaLiga side Celje, has emerged as the leading candidate to become Eintracht Frankfurt manager following the recent dismissal of Dino Toppmöller.

Last season, Toppmöller led a young Frankfurt side to third place and, for the first time in club history, direct qualification for the Champions League. But the German departed earlier this month with Frankfurt in seventh position and playing laboured, defensively fragile football far removed from the high octane, counter-attacking style that carried them to those rarefied heights.

How will Albert Riera build on Toppmöller’s Frankfurt legacy?

Riera’s coaching profile suggests he is well placed to continue what Toppmöller started. Like the German, who adapted to the loss of players like Randal Kolo Muani, Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitiké during his tenure – and once remarked: “I don’t have a preferred formation” – Riera eschews tactical rigidity. Rather than imposing a system from without, the Spaniard is of the view that a team should be moulded around the qualities of the players available. 

“For me, there is no perfect style,” Riera wrote in a column for Coaches’ Voice. “It all depends on the players you have.”

That philosophy was born partly of the five months Riera spent on loan at Manchester City under Stuart Pearce, whose direct style of play, in an era before the riches that would come with the Abu Dhabi takeover, was shaped by a recognition that the club lacked the quality required to outplay the big beasts of the Premier League. 

It was not the only lesson the former Liverpool winger absorbed from a career in which he was managed by coaching savants including Ernesto Valverde, Rafael Benítez, Luis Aragonés, Roberto Mancini and Fatih Terim.

Albert Riera: ‘I learned a lot from Rafael Benítez’

“If you ask me about the coaches I played for, Rafa is one of the best – especially on the tactical side,” said Riera. “I learned a lot from him on the pitch. When to stop, when to join in to generate an overload, or when it was the best moment to go 1-v-1 against the opposing full-back. I learned all of that with him.

“I had other managers who were very good in other areas. Valverde, because of his simplicity; often in football, doing something simple is the most complicated thing. Or Luis Aragonés for his character, and his way of motivating players.”

The insights Riera gained as a player were sharpened further when, shortly after his retirement in 2016, he attended a coaching course convened by the Spanish football federation alongside former international team-mates such as Xavi Hernández, Xabi Alonso, Raúl González, Marcos Senna and Joan Capdevila. 

“The lessons were amazing, with very intense discussions about football between us,” said Riera, who remains part of a WhatsApp group formed by that Spanish coaching brains trust.

What is Albert Riera’s background in management?

Having earned his Uefa Pro Licence in 2019, Riera accepted an invitation from Terim to work as an assistant coach at Galatasaray. Three years later, he took up his first managerial post at Slovenian side Olimpija Ljubljana, with whom he would win a league and cup double in his first season – the perfect riposte to the masked ultras who, incensed by the departure of his predecessor Robert Prosinecki, had stormed his introductory press conference. There was a lesson there, too.

“In football, controversies are always resolved with results,” said Riera. “We did that. There were no complaints from the fans about our performance then; instead, just a lot of support.”

Sandwiched between a season at former club Bordeaux came two separate stints at Celje, the second of which brought a second Slovenian Cup victory. With his contract due to expire this summer, however, Riera now appears bound for the Bundesliga, where Frankfurt board spokesman Axel Hellmann has declared the appointment of a new manager imminent.

Frankfurt ‘on the home stretch of reaching an agreement’

“We will be presenting the new coach shortly,” Hellmann told a members’ meeting this week. “We are on the home stretch of reaching an agreement.

”Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. I wouldn’t write us off so quickly, either on or off the pitch, and certainly not this season.”

Frankfurt were initially linked with Marco Rose, but the former RB Leipzig coach has since distanced himself from the role amid reported concerns about the demand for instant results.

Hopeful that Riera could be in place for Bayer Leverkusen’s visit to the Waldstadion on Saturday, Frankfurt have reportedly agreed a €1.3m (£1.1m) compensation fee with Celje. For Riera, it will be a rare venture into unknown territory and a chance to complete a full house of the top five European leagues.