MY CAREER | Oriol Riera 1

A LIFE IN FOOTBALL

I'm Oriol Riera. For 16 years, I was a professional footballer. Today, I experience the game from the dugout. They are two different positions within the same sport, but for me they have always been connected by the same approach to hard work, high standards and responsibility.

I grew up as a footballer at La Masia, an environment that taught me from a very young age how to deal with competition and pressure. Then came the lower leagues, LaLiga, England, Australia and, as a coach, the top flight of Croatian football. Very different environments that forced me to adapt, learn and evolve without ever losing the work ethic that has been there from the very beginning.

I grew up playing football in Vic, but I soon understood that the game could become something much more serious. Arriving at La Masia placed me in an extremely demanding environment while I was still very young. Competing every day, living alongside incredibly talented players, and accepting that nothing was guaranteed.

Those were pivotal years. There I learned that arriving doesn't mean you've arrived, that talent needs work, and that pressure can also be a tool for growth. I shared a locker room with an exceptional generation and had the opportunity to get close to the first team, but above all, I began to understand football from a perspective that went far beyond simply playing well.

That period left me with a work ethic and a way of approaching competition that would accompany me later in completely different contexts.

HIGH STANDARDS FROM THE START

Leaving Barcelona meant discovering a very different side of professional football. Different grounds, different levels and dressing rooms far removed from everything I had known until then. And that was where one of the most important parts of my development began.

I had to adapt, earn every opportunity and understand that a professional career rarely follows a straight line. León, Vigo, Córdoba and Alcorcón were stages in which I learned to compete away from the spotlight, deal with uncertainty and value every step forward. Eventually, LaLiga arrived. By then, however, I had already learned something fundamental. Every environment demands a different version of you without asking you to stop being yourself.

COMPETING AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL

The opportunity to play in LaLiga came with Osasuna. After years of building my career through the lower leagues, competing at the highest level confirmed that the journey had been worth it, while also exposing me to an even greater level of demand.

MOVING ABROAD TO KEEP GROWING

Moving abroad forced me to look at football from different perspectives. To understand different dressing rooms, different ways of training and different ways of competing. I learned that adapting does not mean giving up who you are. It means finding the best way to contribute in different circumstances.

Over 16 years as a professional footballer, I accumulated experiences that belonged to the player I was at the time, but which would eventually help shape the coach I became. My final chapter as a player came at Fuenlabrada. By then, coaching had long since stopped being a distant possibility.

COACHING. A DIFFERENT WAY TO COMPETE.

When I stopped playing, I never felt that I was leaving football behind. I was simply beginning to experience it from a different position. Everything I had learned over the years as a player became a set of tools for coaching.

Since then, every coaching role has pushed me to keep learning. I have gone from being part of a coaching staff to taking full responsibility as a head coach, competing at different levels and taking on my first international role in Croatia’s top division.

I do not believe in applying the same formula everywhere. I want to understand the environment, build a recognisable playing identity and get the team to believe in it.

NK ISTRA - 2025–2026

3rd at the halfway point of the HNL season · Historic 5–1 away win in Osijek · HNL Coach of the Month, December 2025.

UNIONISTAS CF - 2025

Experience in Primera Federación.

CD ESTEPONA - 2024

Copa del Rey campaign.

CD TUDELANO - 2022–2023

First experience as a head coach

AD ALCORCÓN B - 2020–2021

First step within a professional coaching staff as an assistant coach.

CROATIA. THE STEP UP.

My coaching journey has taken me through AD Alcorcón B, CD Tudelano, CD Estepona and Unionistas CF, very different experiences that have allowed me to grow, take on greater responsibility and develop my own approach to coaching.

My most recent role was with NK Istra 1961 in Croatia’s top flight, where I had the opportunity to compete in a new and highly demanding environment.

We finished the first half of the HNL season in third place, secured a historic 5–1 away win in Osijek and I was named HNL Coach of the Month in December 2025.

Croatia marked another step in my development. It meant adapting my ideas to a different football culture, managing a new environment and proving that hard work, identity and adaptability can also translate into performance.

Everything I have experienced has brought me to this point. And I still approach every new challenge in the same way: learn, compete and build something worth believing in.