{"id":39013,"date":"2026-07-07T17:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39013"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T15:06:09","slug":"real-sociedad-extend-coach-matarazzos-contract-after-cup-success","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/real-sociedad-extend-coach-matarazzos-contract-after-cup-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Sociedad extend coach Matarazzo&#8217;s contract after cup success"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">Real Sociedad have extended head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo&#8217;s contract until the end \u200bof the 2027-28 season, the La \u200cLiga club said on Tuesday, rewarding the American for leading them to the Copa del \u200bRey title in his first months \u200bin charge.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\nThat made the 48-year-old, who \u2060joined the Basque club in December, \u200bthe first American head coach to win \u200ba major trophy in one of Europe&#8217;s top five leagues. The win over Atletico Madrid also \u200bsecured the club a place in \u200bnext season&#8217;s Europa League.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Matarazzo took charge with Sociedad near \u200cthe \u2060La Liga relegation zone, and he guided them to a 10th-place finish on 46 points.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I connected very well with the \u200bpeople of \u200bGipuzkoa, \u2060with the players, with the people at the club. I share \u200bsimilar values with them, which \u200bmakes \u2060it easier to connect,&#8221; Matarazzo said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Sociedad begin their 2026-27 La Liga \u2060campaign \u200baway to Real Madrid \u200bon August 17 at the Santiago Bernabeu.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22138,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-39013","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Matarazzo took charge with Sociedad near \u200cthe \u2060La Liga relegation zone.","published_date":"","news_description":"Matarazzo took charge with Sociedad near \u200cthe \u2060La Liga relegation zone.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39014,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39013\/revisions\/39014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}