Valencia fires Corberán and clears out entire sporting leadership after one point in five games

One point in five games. One goal scored and ten allowed. With those numbers staring back at them, Valencia CF decided it wasn't worth waiting any longer and on Sunday overhauled its entire sporting structure.

The Mestalla club announced the firing of Carlos Corberán as head coach of the first team, but the shakeup didn't stop there. Also out was Ron Gourlay, the club's football CEO, along with his entire working group: Lisandro Isei, Hans Gillhaus, Andrés Zamora and Malek Shafei. Almost no one in the sporting leadership kept their job.

The club itself explained the reasoning behind such a drastic move. According to the statement, it all comes down to "the club's desire to begin a new phase in its sporting and football management structure." And looking at the standings, the urgency makes sense: Valencia currently sits at the bottom of LaLiga, something few would have predicted just a few months ago.

What stands out is that this crisis erupts right after a strong bet on continuity. Gourlay had joined the club in late May 2025 to take charge of the football department, and one of his most talked about decisions was renewing Corberán's contract this summer through 2028. In other words, the club locked in its coach for the long term, only to end up firing the very executive who made that call months later.

Corberán, for his part, had taken over at Mestalla in December 2024 and led the team in 72 matches. His first full season went reasonably well, as he steered the club to safety without major scares. But the start of this campaign was a different story altogether, and in soccer, recent memory tends to outweigh what happened last year.

Óscar Sánchez takes over on an interim basis

With Corberán and his entire coaching staff gone, Valencia didn't leave the locker room without a leader. The club named Óscar Sánchez, who had been in charge of the reserve team, to take over the first team on a provisional basis while the new setup is finalized.

The club said it would announce in the coming days how the new football department structure will look, along with the direction the sporting project will take going forward. For now, the official message aimed to project calm amid the storm: the club closed its statement by speaking of "stability and confidence in the future" and reaffirming its commitment to "building a solid, competitive and sustainable sporting project."

Words that will, of course, need to start showing up on the field. Because beyond the changes in the front office, Valencia remains at the bottom of the table and needs results before the crisis grows any bigger.