Ruben Cousillas: Assistant Coach
Ruben Cousillas joined West Ham United as Manuel Pellegrini’s assistant coach in June 2018, reuniting him with a man he worked with previously at no fewer than seven different clubs.
The Argentinian assisted Pellegrini at San Lorenzo and River Plate in his homeland at the turn of the century before following the Chilean to Spain, where he played his part in leading Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League.
In 2013, the former San Lorenzo goalkeeper joined Pellegrini at Manchester City, winning the Premier League title in his first season in English football.
In March 2014, with the manager serving a touchline ban, Cousillas took charge of City for their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 second-leg defeat in Barcelona.
Born in the town of Roque Perez in May 1957, 100 miles south west of the capital Buenos Aires, Cousillas began his playing career with San Lorenzo as a teenager, before going on to play more than 100 league games for the club.
Cousillas moved to Colombia in 1982, joining Bogota-based Millonarios, where he remained for five seasons and won the Primera A title in 1987.
The stopper rounded out his career by returning to his homeland to represent Velez Sarsfield, Deportivo Mandiyu, Argentinos Juniors, Deportivo Moron and Sarmiento.
Cousillas made a successful start to his coaching career with Talleres de Cordoba in the late 1990s, winning the Primera B title in 1997/98, before returning to San Lorenzo to assist former Argentina defender Oscar Ruggeri. When Ruggeri was replaced by Pellegrini in 2001, the partnership which has lasted more than 15 years began.
The duo won the Primera Division Clausura Tournament and Copa Mercosur in 2001, before moving to River Plate, where they won another Primera Division Clausura in 2003.
The following year, Cousillas and Pellegrini moved across the Atlantic Ocean to Villarreal, leading the Yellow Submarine to a third-place La Liga finish and the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
The following season, 2005/06, Cousillas helped Villarreal to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
In 2009, Cousillas followed Pellegrini to Real Madrid, where they spent a single season and amassed a record 96 La Liga points in finishing second to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
Summer 2010 saw the pair join forces again at Malaga, where they again qualified for the UEFA Champions League after finishing fourth in La Liga in their first season.
After three seasons at La Rosaleda and three more at the Etihad Stadium, where Cousillas also lifted two League Cups, he and Pellegrini headed to the Chinese Super League and Hebei China Fortune in August 2016, where he worked until agreeing to return to England in June 2018.