Álex Pallarés has been named new Bilbao Athletic coach for this season.

Pallares has replaced Bingen Arostegi after he was sacked yesterday for a poor run of results.

He has coached around the world and the last job of Pallarés was the Venezuelans Deportivo Táchira, which he led to the quarterfinals of the Copa Sudamericana (the Europa League on that continent) after eliminating the Brazilians Santos.

Athletic youth chief Sergio Navarro said: "As we did before, we searched for a coach profile that is not easy to find. On the one hand, we need you to know the formative processes of the base, the evolutionary moments. On the other hand, that he has been in performance, that he knows professional football and helps the Bilbao Athletic boys to reach the first team.

"Alex Pallarés has experience in this formative part because he has been a coach and methodologist both at Villarreal and at the Aspire Academy as well as at Levante, he has trained the Rubin Kazan second team, which is where I met him and was able to see first-hand the great ability he has to lead groups and the great talent he has when it comes to understanding this game.

"Then he had his journey at the professional level as a head coach."