Julián M. Villar-Aragón Expósito was born on September 17th, 1983 in a city called Jaén, Spain. As a footballer, Julián played all levels of Úbeda FC but a knee injury, operated twice, turned him from playing football into coaching – living his passion for football from the other side of the pitch. He is a national football coach UEFA Pro Licence with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Education and Management, and also an expert in Sports Mental Coaching.
After leading for four years different teams in the Youth Football structure of Úbeda FC, he went to Madrid where he trained RSD Alcalá de Henares for three seasons – two of them in the Spanish third division and in the other one the team reached second division B. His training and experience went in crescendo as he trained Rayo Majadahonda FC − the youth elite team in honor division and agreed of Club Atlético de Madrid − and its third division team. In 2010, he joined the Football School of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) as a football coach. In this period he became an expert in Tactics by being a specialized teacher in Royal Football Federation of Madrid RFFM, as well as working as a member of Football Coaches Committee of the RFEF. He also spends his time teaching and attending presentations and lectures in football clubs, academies and universities, some of them international ones, and he writes articles published in professional journals too.
It is stunning that, besides his youth, the RFEF and its Foundation Football Schools entrusted him with the hard task of building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the first Football School of the RFEF outside Spain, commissioned by Al Hilal Saudi FC. But Julian’s qualities, training, perseverance and thoroughness after two seasons in the Football School of the RFEF made it so that this team achieved being designated by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) as the best football club in Asia.
Atlético de Madrid SAD Club offered Julián the position of coach in the Methodology Department of the Academy, including its second team, due to his exemplary work for the RFEF during two seasons in Riyadh. That happened just in the peak time of this club. Here, he takes care of the Youth Football structure and applies, supervises and strengthens his own concept of football, from his love and vocation for his career in one of the highest Youth Football clubs worldwide.
Furthermore, he has been the coordinator of the Academy in Atlético de Madrid Club for the last seasons.
Julián has been the reliable person designated by the management of Atlético the Madrid Club to carry out missions abroad: travels to Belgrade (Serbia), Berlin (Germany), Milan (Italy), Johannesburg (South Africa), Oslo (Norway), and also to develop important international projects in Beijing and Dalian (China) and in India, as Sporting Director of Jamshedpur FC.
After 8 seasons at the Atlético de Madrid club, he decides to turn his sports career around and returns to the Middle East to lead several projects, including as Technical Director of the Real Madrid academy in Oman.
In an interview hold with him in 2016 by the magazine Football Killer we can read his three constant themes in his life:
· “Lot’s of times I try to get conscious of myself and not to forget where I am. I stop and think that I am very lucky because I can do what I like and live of it”.
· “In order to achieve anything, it is absolutely necessary to be perseverant. People only see the tip of the iceberg, but they don’t see the path you have walked to get to this little tip”.
· “Of course, everything comes along with the efforts to be a good person”.
"You never lose. You either win or learn"
Nelson Mandela
