Javi Gracia

Javier "Javi" Gracia Carlos (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxaβi ˈɣɾaθja]; born 1 May 1970) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently the head coach of EFL Championship club Watford.

He totalled 430 matches across both major levels of Spanish football, in a 15-year professional career. After retiring he began working as a manager, going on to coach several clubs in Spain, Greece and Russia before being appointed at Watford in January 2018.

Gracia led Watford to their second FA Cup final in their history in 2019, but was sacked later the same year. From June 2020 to May 2021 he worked with Valencia, and a year later he won the Qatar Stars League during a brief spell at Al Sadd before managing Leeds United for three months in 2023.

Born in Pamplona, Navarre, Gracia started playing professionally with Bilbao Athletic, Athletic Bilbao's reserves, never appearing officially for the first team. In the 1992–93 campaign, he scored a career-best 12 goals in all 38 games as Lleida returned to La Liga after an absence of more than 40 years, as champions.

Gracia spent the following six seasons in the top flight, appearing regularly for both Real Valladolid and Real Sociedad until 1998–99 (15 matches, one goal). In 1999, he returned to Segunda División and signed for Villarreal, helping the Valencian club to get promoted to the top division after one year and being regularly used the following campaign – 1,764 minutes of action – as the team retained their status.

In February 2003, after being scarcely played in his last one and a half seasons at Villarreal, the 32-year-old Gracia joined Córdoba in the second level, closing out his career in June of the following year. He appeared in 229 Spanish top-tier games over the course of nine seasons, netting 17 goals.

After starting his managerial career with the youth sides of his former club Villarreal, Gracia worked in the Segunda División B with Pontevedra, finishing first and second with the team in the regular season but always falling short in the promotion playoffs.

In 2008–09, still in the third division, Gracia finally achieved promotion, now with Cádiz, but he was fired midway through the following season as the Andalusians were immediately relegated. In the 2010–11 campaign, with Villarreal's reserves, he managed to avert a drop also in the second tier, even tough José Francisco Molina was in charge for the final four fixtures.