SAN SEBASTIAN — Real Sociedad manager Pellegrino Matarazzo has guided the club to the Copa del Rey final against Atlético Madrid in Seville, capping a season in which he also steered the team from a relegation-threatened position to safety. It is Matarazzo's first Copa del Rey final as a manager.

Under Matarazzo, Real Sociedad also reached the edge of a Champions League qualification place in La Liga. The club has not won the Copa del Rey since defeating Athletic Bilbao, a final that was delayed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and played without fans. Real Sociedad supporters have not appeared in a Copa del Rey final for 39 years.

"For everyone here, it's a very special moment. The chance to win a title, be at a final, isn't something you experience every day and the entire city is excited," Matarazzo said of the upcoming final.

Matarazzo grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where he supported Napoli and watched Diego Maradona play. His first language was Italian at home and English outside it, before German overtook both. He is now learning Spanish and bits of Basque. He earned a degree in applied mathematics from Columbia University.

As a player, Matarazzo trialled with Italian fourth-tier club Nocerina. An agent promised him trials at Salernitana, but they never happened. He spent three months in Italy doing interval running through the streets and the hazelnut orchard where his grandparents lived in Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo. He later married in the church at the top of Montevergine mountain.

Matarazzo went on to play in Germany's third and fourth tiers as a midfielder for Eintracht Bad Kreuznach, SV Wehen Wiesbaden, Preussen Münster and SG Wattenscheid. He began his coaching career by completing coaching badges while playing for 1. FC Nürnberg's second team, and obtained his professional coaching license alongside Julian Nagelsmann. He was appointed head coach of VfB Stuttgart in 2019 and led TSG Hoffenheim between 2023 and 2024 before taking charge at Real Sociedad.

"I'm grateful for my coaching education in Germany. But I wanted to open the horizon, set new boundaries. La Real were top of my list," Matarazzo said.