On the evening of January 16, Beijing time, Premier League powerhouse Everton Club officially announced that Rafa Benitez would no longer be the team's head coach. Benitez's contract with Everton was supposed to expire in 2024, but the Spanish coach regretted leaving early.
Benitez also became the seventh Premier League manager to step down this season, after Muñoz (Watford), Bruce (Newcastle), Nuno (Tottenham), Daniel Fauck (Norwich), Dean Smith (Villa) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United).
Born in 1960, Benitez has coached Europe's top giants such as Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Napoli, and helped Liverpool win the Champions League for the fifth time. In addition, he has coached the Dalian Renren Club of the Chinese Super League. Nicknamed "Master Bei", his career resume can be described as quite brilliant.
On June 30, 2021, Benitez officially became the coach of Everton. Since Benitez has coached Liverpool in the past, Everton fans did not agree with Benitez from the beginning of his tenure. In the last 13 rounds, Evertonton have achieved only 1 win, 3 draws and 9 losses. Everton currently have just 19 points to finish 15th in the Premier League table, just six points ahead of the relegation zone.
Because of the poor record of the team, an angry Everton fan even ran off the stands in the stadium to try to rush to Benitez in the 1-2 loss to Norwich in this round, but fortunately stopped by the stadium security personnel to avoid physical contact. Considering that Benitez had a high salary of 7 million pounds but led the team to a dismal record, Everton chose to sack the Liverpool meritorious manager early.
After firing Benitez, Everton star Duncan Ferguson will become the team's interim manager. In addition, Rooney, who is currently leading the Team at the Championship Derby County, is also one of the candidates for the new Everton manager. Everton fans have always loved Rooney, and if Rooney returns to coaching, he believes that he can quickly stabilize the "Toffee" military heart.