12-goal Newcastle United cult-hero lands first managerial role with Argentine club

Jonas Gutierrez has been named as the new manager of Argentine second division side Club Almagro. Gutierrez, who turned 40 in July, will take his first steps into management in Argentina’s Primera Nacional - second division of football in the country.

His new club finished 17th in Group A having taken 37 points from 36 games during the 2023 season. Gutierrez spent four months as a player at Almagro between July and November 2021 before announcing his retirement from football.

Gutierrez will likely be most remembered for his iconic goal against West Ham on the final day of the 2014/15 Premier League season as Newcastle United survived relegation from the Premier League in a game that came less than a year after the winger had revealed he was undergoing treatment for testicular cancer. Gutierrez left the Magpies to join Deprtivo La Coruna at the end of that season before moving back to Argentina in 2016.

Despite scoring just 12 goals for Newcastle during his seven years at the club, Gutierrez left Tyneside as a cult-hero and back in October 2021, revealed his delight at the takeover of the club and the end of Mike Ashley’s reign as owner: Gutierrez said: “I think, like all the Newcastle fans, I’m really really happy because for me it was necessary to have a change, to have hope. I can see [what] the fans make [of the news] outside of St James’s Park, all the videos of the stuff they did when the [announcement came] of a new owner.”