Fran Alonso declared himself a Celtic fan for life after leaving his role as the Parkhead club’s women’s team manager.
The Spaniard, who joined the Hoops in January, 2020 from Lewes FC women, will join Houston Dash FC in the USA’s National Women’s Soccer League, as head coach.
Alonso told Celtic’s official website: “I was not born a Celtic supporter but I will definitely die as one and I will support Celtic for the rest of my life.
“The club, the team, the people and the Celtic community has been everything to me during the past four years and has lit up my life. It has been a wonderful adventure.
“The values, the spirit and the ethos of the club has been everything to me and I am so proud to have held the position of Celtic manager.
“I am very sad to leave Celtic and it was a really hard decision to make. However, the new opportunity in America is one that I dreamt about since I started coaching in the women’s game and I know our Celtic supporters will understand.
“During the last four years I have given absolutely everything to Celtic, on and off the field and I am delighted that we have made history in so many occasions – our very first UEFA Champions League qualification, our very first Scottish Cup, our first win in the UEFA Champions League, three trophies won, and managed to be just minutes away from winning our very first league title
“I would like to thank everyone at Celtic who has given me such brilliant support. How you all make us feel is indescribable.
“I would like to thank all the players over this four years who have given everything for me and for the badge, and also thank you to my backroom team who have always walked the extra mile to help the team, on and off the field.
“Thanks to the directors and management at Celtic who gave me the opportunity of coming here and, of course, thank you to the best fans, who have really supported us in the hard times, have been behind us no matter what, and created atmospheres that will stay in our memories for the rest of our lives.
“I leave knowing that the Celtic women’s team is in a much better place than when I first joined, and I am sure, with this terrific squad we have built, it will go from strength to strength.
“I wish the club and the team all the success, I will always be supporting you from abroad. C’mon the Hoops!”
Alonso’s arrival at Celtic coincided with the team turning professional. The League Cup final win in 2021 was followed with back-to-back Scottish Cup successes in 2022 and 2023, while two second-place finishes in the Scottish Women’s Premier League also facilitated the club’s first two experiences in the UEFA Women’s Champions’ League.
Celtic chief executive, Michael Nicholson said: “I would like to sincerely thank Fran for the fantastic contribution he has made to the development of our women’s team.
“We will also look to build on the progress that the team have made on a European level over the last couple of years.
“While we are hugely disappointed to lose Fran, everyone at the club sincerely wishes him every success in his new challenge.
“The work on identifying his successor has already begun and we will make an announcement on the position as soon as possible.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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