Spaniard

Andoni Iraola left his role at Bournemouth at the end of the season and takes over at Liverpool in place of Arne Slot.

Liverpool has named Andoni Iraola as their new manager after sacking Arne Slot following a calamitous Premier League title defence.

Iraola quickly emerged as Liverpool’s top target to replace Slot, whose two-year reign came to a shock end when he was dismissed last Saturday.

Liverpool gave no indication as to the length of the 43-year-old Spaniard’s contract, but British media have reported that he has signed a two-year deal.

“Really excited, really excited, because obviously you know about Liverpool, you know that it’s a big club, a massive club, one of the biggest in the world,” Iraola, who called time on his impressive spell with Bournemouth at the end of this season, said on Liverpool’s official website on Thursday.

“But feeling inside and understanding a little bit more of this club, I always thought it’s a special club.

“You don’t need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool. Liverpool is Liverpool.”

After criticism of Liverpool’s lacklustre performances in Slot’s second season at Anfield, Iraola is expected to deliver a more urgent, aggressive style of football, which characterised the team under beloved former manager Jurgen Klopp.

Iraola earned rave reviews for Bournemouth’s sixth-place finish in England’s Premier League this season, which secured the club’s first qualification for Europe, in the Europa League.

He arrived at the south coast club from Raya Vallecano in 2023, having previously managed Mirandes and AEK Larnaca in Cyprus.

Bournemouth improved each year under Iraola, finishing 12th, ninth and sixth.

The former defender was praised for his astute tactics and development of youngsters including Eli Junior Kroupi and Alex Scott.

Prior to leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, Egypt star Mohamed Salah recently called for a return to the “heavy metal football” that led to so much success under Klopp, heaping pressure on the beleaguered Slot.

Iraola has previously talked about his desire for his teams to play with an attacking, high-pressing style, in contrast to Slot’s more controlled approach.

Born in Spain’s Basque Country, Iraola played more than 500 games for Athletic Bilbao before a stint in Major League Soccer with New York City, where he teamed up with Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo.

He will arrive on Merseyside with Liverpool at a crossroads after Slot’s failure to maintain the club’s position at the summit of English football.

Slot had the tough task of replacing Klopp, who left in 2024 after winning the Premier League and Champions League during a golden nine-year spell at Anfield.

The former Feyenoord boss made a strong start, leading Liverpool to a record-equalling 20th English league title in his debut season, spearheaded by Salah’s 29 goals.

But Slot was unable to halt Liverpool’s slide in the 2025-26 season as the Reds collapsed from late September onward, finishing a turbulent season without a trophy.

The death of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota in a car crash last July had an immeasurable impact on the squad, while the club’s  450-million-pound ($605m) splurge on new signings failed to pay off.

Slot’s relationship with Salah also deteriorated, while Liverpool fans turned on the manager due to his team’s lifeless displays and poor results.

The club limped to a fifth-place finish, 25 points behind champions Arsenal, which at least guaranteed qualification for next season’s Champions League.

May 26 (UPI) — A Spanish national who was aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship has tested positive for the virus, Spanish health officials said, apparently increasing the number of confirmed and probable cases linked to the outbreak to 13.

The unidentified patient was among the 14 Spanish nationals who disembarked from the vessel in Tenerife, Canary Islands, on the morning of May 10, after the hantavirus cluster was identified earlier that month. Three of the cases have died.

Spain’s Ministry of Health said the patient was confirmed positive while in preventive quarantine at Gomez Ulla Hospital in Madrid, where the individual has been under clinical surveillance and isolation since disembarking from the vessel.

“The positive case was detected during the periodic diagnostic checks carried out on the contacts under follow-up,” the ministry said in a social media statement.

The patient has since been transferred to the High-level Isolation Unit at Gomez Ulla, where they will be under what the ministry said was “specialized medical supervision” and provided with biosafety measures.

“Health authorities stress that the case was detected within the isolation and control system already in place, and therefore does not change the risk situation for the general population or alter the ongoing epidemiological response measures,” health officials said.

The new case was announced a day after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the cruise-linked outbreak had 12 cases.

The ship with about 150 passengers and crew from nearly two dozen nations on board were forced to dock in the Canary Islands earlier this month due to the hantavirus outbreak that at that time was responsible for two deaths and eight cases, six confirmed and two probable.

Among those who disembarked were the 14 Spanish nationals, including 13 passengers and one crew member, who remain at Gomez Ulla Hospital.

With the announcement Monday, two Spanish nationals have tested positive since disembarking from the vessel, with the first positive case being made public by the ministry on May 11.

On Friday, the ministry said that those under monitoring who have been asymptomatic and tested negative for the virus during the first 28 days from the time they were admitted could complete their mandatory 42 days of monitoring at home. The 28-day hospital quarantine is to end around June 7.

Spain’s health minister, Monica Garcia, told reporters on Friday that all 14 Spaniards in quarantine were “doing well.”

“Even the one who had symptoms has begun to be asymptomatic,” she said.

“They have now been able to leave their rooms and share the common areas.”

On Sunday, Ghebreyesus said the cruise-linked hantavirus outbreak was “stable for now.”