Madrid, May 27 (IANS) Eder Sarabia announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down as coach of La Liga side Elche and will take a break from football. The decision comes just five days after Elche secured a place in La Liga for next season with a 1-1 draw away to Girona, completing a successful campaign a year after Sarabia guided the club to promotion from the second division.

“We have decided not to continue. We may have saddened many people, and they may be disappointed, but we hope they understand the reasons,” Sarabia said at a press conference, where he thanked the club for “two incredible years.”

“We achieved promotion, stayed up, and filled the stadium, that was the dream I had,” he added, while also thanking his coaching staff, players, and supporters.

Sarabia said he does not plan to return immediately to coaching, citing the demands the profession places on personal life, reports Xinhua.

“This is a demanding profession where you neglect other things: family, children, friends,” he said. “We’re not going to coach. We’re going to take a few months off to prepare, get organised, and attend to other needs that are also fundamental.”

The last round of matches in La Liga ended on Saturday with a nail-biting end to the season, which saw Mallorca and Girona join Oviedo in relegation to the second division, while Celta and Getafe assured their places in Europe for next season.

However, Spain’s head-to-head system of separating sides who finish level on points meant Mallorca needed results elsewhere to go their way. Although Levante lost 2-1 to Betis and Osasuna went to a 1-0 defeat in Getafe, Elche’s win doomed Mallorca to the drop with 42 points.

Getafe’s win, which came through Luis Milla’s 59th-minute goal, assured a seventh-place finish and a spot in next season’s Conference League ahead of Rayo Vallecano, who fought back to win 2-1 away to Deportivo Alaves.

Celta Vigo’s 1-0 win at home to Sevilla gave it a sixth-place finish thanks to Ilaix Moriba’s solitary strike. Espanyol drew 1-1 at home to Real Sociedad. Valencia’s 3-1 victory at home to Barcelona, with goals from Javi Guerra, Luis Rioja and Guido Rodriguez, wasn’t enough for a place in Europe, while Robert Lewandowski signed off from Barcelona with a goal.

–IANS

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