Albert "Chapi" Ferrer (Barcelona, 1970) announced on Saturday in his presentation as the new coach of Mallorca that the "only goal" he has set is to "get promoted to Primera" to a club that he has described as "great and historic".
"I will demand maximum effort from the players, that they first run and then play football," said "Chapi" Ferrer, in a press conference in which he appeared accompanied by the president of Mallorca, Utz Claasen, the vice president Monti Galmés, the sports director Miguel Angel Nadal, and his assistant on the bench, also former player José Gálvez.
Ferrer, who has signed for one year and will replace Miguel "Nanu" Soler as the head of the technical management of the team, thanked the Mallorca organization for the trust placed in him after discarding other "highly qualified" candidates.
"Mallorca has to match, at least, the level of effort and work of other teams in Segunda. It is a very complicated category where we need the effort and unity of everyone, including of course the fans, with whom we have to go hand in hand," he emphasized.
Ferrer has managed Cordoba in Segunda, with which he achieved promotion to Primera, and also the Dutch Vitesse Arnhem.
In the Andalusian team, he had under his orders the goal scorer Xisco Jiménez, who played for Mallorca last season on loan.
"He is a player I like, he is from Mallorca and can be a reference in attack, but his contract belongs to Cordoba," he pointed out.
According to the new Mallorca coach, the team must face the next season with "humility but also ambition".
"We have to be motivated and give our best from the beginning; I will always demand effort, commitment, and involvement from the players; those are the guidelines we are going to establish," Ferrer emphasized.
Claassen says Ferrer is "the coach of the Centenary" of Mallorca
The president of Mallorca, Utz Claassen, presented Albert Ferrer on Saturday as "the coach of the Centenary," referring to the fact that the Balearic club will celebrate its hundredth anniversary in February 2016, and highlighted that he has "hunger and enthusiasm".
"With Ferrer at the helm of the team, we have reduced the risk of making mistakes," said Claaasen, who admitted that together with sports director Miguel Angel Nadal, they had interviewed "eight candidates from ten countries" before deciding on the former Barcelona player.
"We have signed the best, taking into account that our selection process was very thorough, and that in the end, we reduced the candidates to five coaches, all of them prestigious and whose names I will not mention," explained the president of Mallorca.
"We have had nine coaches in three and a half years; I would like to have only one in the same period of time," Claasen emphasized.
He also added that Ferrer's friendship with Nadal "did not influence the choice of the coach," despite the fact that they are friends and coincided at Barcelona.
He recalled that Ferrer has "a season in Segunda and a promotion" (with Cordoba) and that, in addition, "he speaks English, which implies projection if the club signs foreign players," Nadal pointed out.
Nadal, for his part, highlighted that Ferrer "has many years in football" and is convinced that he will get the most out of the squad.