Sociedad’s Matarazzo: The American coach who studied math at Columbia and grew up watching Maradona

Real Sociedad's head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo, right, celebrates with Duje Caleta-Car after winning the Copa del Rey final soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad in Seville, Spain, Saturday, April. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton) 2026-04-19T12:06:05Z MADRID (AP) — A 48-year-old American coach who studied mathematics at Columbia and grew up watching Diego Maradona play for Napoli is now part of the history of Spanish club Real Sociedad in the Basque Country. Pellegrino “Rino” Matarazzo led Sociedad to its fourth Copa del Rey title on Saturday with a penalty-shootout win over Atletico Madrid. It was the first career title for the coach who left the United States to try to play soccer professionally and ended up becoming a manager in Germany. “Just the feeling you have of ‘wow, wow, this happened, we did it, we did it,’” said Matarazzo, who in less than four months took Sociedad from near the relegation zone in the Spanish league to lifting the prestigious Copa del Rey trophy. The New Jersey-born coach was hired in December when Sociedad was two points above the relegation zone. He guided it back to safety and to its title run in the Copa in what he called “an unbelievable journey.” “If you think about all the games that we played, every game has been very very special since I arrived and I think we finished with a very special game,” the soft-spoken Matarazzo said. “Wow, wow...” Matarazzo downplayed his role in the team’s turnaround and credited his players’ talent and character for the improvement and the title run in the Copa. “I’m very grateful to be manager of this club, very very grateful,” Matarazzo said. “Being part of its history now is, of course, something special, and I’m also very grateful to have this team, these players, this staff, this club. It’s a product of the work we’ve done together in the past weeks.” (