Claudio Giráldez González (born 24 February 1988) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a left back, and is the manager of La Liga club Celta Vigo.
Giráldez returned to his home region in 2009, joining fellow third tier side Pontevedra.[2] He signed for Ourense in the fourth level on 28 July 2011,[3] helping in their promotion to the third division in his first season; he left the latter club in May 2013.[4]
On 17 June 2013, Giráldez agreed to a deal with Coruxo in the third level.[5] After being sparingly used during the campaign, he returned to his first club Porriño in 2014, where he scored a career-best eight goals during the 2015–16 season.
Giráldez helped Porriño in their promotion to the fourth division in 2018, and retired in the following year, aged 31.[6]
Managerial career
In 2015, while still a player, Giráldez was also named manager of Porriño Industrial's Juvenil squad. In the following year, he joined Celta's structure, and was a manager of their Cadete B, Cadete A and Juvenil B squads.[6]
On 27 June 2019, Giráldez was named in charge of Gran Peña, Celta's farm team,[7] and also remained manager of their Juvenil B team. On 10 August 2021, he was appointed manager of the Juvenil División de Honor squad.[8]
On 2 July 2022, Giráldez replaced Onésimo Sánchez at the helm of Celta's B-team;[9] the club officially announced his new role ten days later.[10] In his first season in charge of the B's, he led them to the play-offs, losing in the semi-finals to eventual winners Eldense.
On 12 March 2024, Giráldez was named manager of Celta's first team, replacing Rafael Benítez.[11] His first professional match in charge occurred five days later, as his side won 2–1 at Sevilla.[12]