Kitchee appoint Iñigo Calderón as new manager- who is he and what can we expect?

Credits to Kitchee

Iñigo Calderón was announced as Kitchee's new manager today, and is the fifth Spanish manager in the clubs history, following in the footsteps of Josep Gombau, Alex Gomez, Jose Francisco Molina and Abraham Garcia, all of whom had varying degrees of success. But who is Iñigo Calderón? Here we delve into his career as a player and a coach, to give you a bit of background into him. So far it is unclear if any new coaches will join him, but we expect Fernando Recio and Poon Man-chun to still be involved.

Iñigo Calderón is forty three years old, and made over three hundred and fifty appearances as a professional, mostly at right back. His most notable spell was spent at Brighton, spending six years and making over two hundred appearances for them, but he also played in his native Spain, and finished his career with spells in Cyprus and India. As a player he helped Brighton win promotion into the second tier (making the team of the season), and won the Indian Super League in his penultimate season as a professional, and he retired as a player in early 2019. Although his time at Brighton ended before they reached the Premier League (although he did feature in three play off semi-final defeats), he is extremely popular amongst their fanbase for setting an example as a leader and role model, setting the high standards of professionalism which eventually saw the side promoted.

Calderón technically took his first backroom position at Brighton while still playing abroad, acting as a scout for his former club between 2016 and 2019- one player he is credited with scouting in this time is Pascal Gross, who played over 250 times for Brighton before moving to Borussia Dortmund. Following his retirement from playing he moved back to his native Spain to another former club, Alaves, where in over four years he managed the U19s side and assisted the B team. In July 2023 he moved back to Brighton officially, and was the U18s manager for a year and a half. He then took on the job at League One (English 3rd tier) Bristol Rovers in December 2024, with many Brighton fans sad to see him go, after an impressive recent spell of free-flowing attacking football with young players. Despite an upturn in fortunes at the start of 2025, a disastrous run across March and April saw them only win eight points from their final sixteen games and they were relegated. 

During his playing career Calderón played alongside England internationals Wayne Bridge, Ben White and Lewis Dunk, as well as former Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak. He has been managed by a number of well-known names- at Brighton he was managed by Gus Poyet and Chris Hughton, while in India he played under John Gregory, who managed Aston Villa in the Premier League. At Brighton he served on the coaching staff of Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi, so he has been around a lot of football knowledge which he can hopefully demonstrate with us.

There had been reports of HKFA technical director John Morling being involved in helping Kitchee find a new coach, and the two worked together at Brighton for a number of years. A win rate of 23% in his only senior job is worrying, but he did come into a bad situation for a first managerial role. Some fans of Bristol Rovers felt he was almost doomed from the beginning with a number of off-field issues. He came in with the club in 20th, and had his on-loan first choice goalkeeper recalled from a loan spell within a few weeks of taking over, and had a number of senior strikers getting injured in January, without the opportunity to bring in experienced cover. Fans of Bristol Rovers describe him as a likeable character who was grateful for the opportunity of his first job in senior management, and he spent a lot of time rebuilding the connection between the supporters and the team. While ultimately results towards the end were not good enough, a number of fans still believed he should have been given the chance to stay on and rebuild, although it is clear this was a divisive issue. 

Calderón was interviewed by the Athletic in July 2023 (linked below) where he talked about his love of coaching, being involved in youth coaching while still playing, and a lot of coaches earmarked him as a future coach from a young age. He has a love of the game that extended far beyond playing- he completed a Sports Science degree and a masters degree in Sports Psychology in his mid-twenties, before completing his UEFA Pro License aged 36, and he also has a teaching qualification from the Spanish national coaching academy. He tends to operate using a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, with a focus on possession-based football, which at youth level brought about a lot of goals.

We hope Calderón can blend the existing Kitchee players with the new signings and any academy players and help inspire Kitchee to some long-awaited silverware. While his senior managerial record may not be the greatest, he is clearly an ambitious manager with a philosophy on the pitch, and an ability to build connections with supporters, and work well with young talent. We wait to see how he sets the team up and whether his connections in England or Spain see us bring in new signings from either nation.

Sources and links

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cx27kzry494o

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/21/bristol-rovers-inigo-calderon-i-needed-more-real-football-the-adrenaline

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/exclusive-lee-hendrie-reacts-to-inevitable-bristol-rovers-inigo-calderon-call/

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4678963/2023/07/13/inigo-calderon-brighton/ (subscription required)

https://archive.ph/XJ9EN (above article but no need for subscription)

https://x.com/brfcjacob/status/1871297678107349323?t=SbDnOJDF_EIOJIF8J5O2Vg&s=08

https://x.com/TheNextWave/status/1840370093852684373

https://x.com/seagulleaglepod

https://www.instagram.com/seagulleaglepodcast/

Continue to stay in touch with us on social media to stay up to date with any Kitchee news. We believe some new signings will be announced early next week, and we will post once this is confirmed. We'll also be posting as Tan Chun-lok and Juninho represent Hong Kong in the EAFF Championships over the next ten days.

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