West Ham names new manager who coached Cristiano Ronaldo's ex-team

West Ham United announced Thursday the replacement of Scottish football manager David Moyes, who parted ways with the London-based club days earlier.

The club in a statement said that it has hired former boss of Wolverhampton Wanderers Julen Lopetegui, who also coached the former club of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 57-year-old said in a statement: "I feel very happy, first of all, to be able to be part of the future of this big club. We will try to put our stamp on the club.”

The Spanish football manager entered a two-year contract with West Ham United keeping an option for an extension to another season.

Julen Lopetegui recently managed the Wolves during the 2022-23 campaign, while he had also his footprints in the Spanish national team, Porto, and Sevilla, where he secured the title of Europa League in 2020.

The former manager of Real Madrid said: "I am where I want to be. I am here because I want to be here and for us it was a fantastic day when we closed our agreement here because we our commitment is 100% to be here. We had other opportunities but I am very happy that West Ham chose me because I chose West Ham too, so we are really happy about this."

David Moyes ended his journey with West Ham earlier this month before the two final Premier League matches against Manchester City and Luton Town.

West Ham beat Luton 3-1 but was defeated by City at the Etihad on the final day.