Miguel Ángel Corona has publicly defended his work as sporting director of Valencia Club de Fútbol under Peter Lim's ownership. The former director, who arrived at the club in January 2020 and was dismissed in November 2025, outlined the harsh financial conditions that defined his tenure, a period that mirrors the team's current precarious league position.
Valencia CF currently sit 19th in La Liga with just four points from seven games. Their form over the last five matches reads one win and four defeats, a reflection of the instability Corona describes inheriting and which Braulio Vázquez is now tasked with fixing. The next test is an away trip to face Racing Santander, a direct rival in the lower reaches of the table.
Corona detailed that the sales of figures like Gonçalo Guedes and Carlos Soler in the summer of 2022 were a response to a cost-cutting policy forced by economic unsustainability. "There is a cost reduction policy. The club was not viable with the revenues we had and we had to reinvent ourselves," stated the former sporting director. This line also forced the sale of Ferran Torres two years earlier and left a sporting void hard to fill.
The aim, according to Corona, was always to try and sign high-level players despite budgetary limits. This search frequently resulted in bets on very young footballers, many arriving on loan like Nico González, Justin Kluivert, Samuel Lino and Enzo Barrenechea, who all left when their loan spells ended.
Among the operations Corona highlighted were the permanent signings of Pepelu and Luis Rioja. The midfielder was acquired from Levante UD for five million euros in the summer of 2023 and became an international shortly after. The forward, meanwhile, arrived from Deportivo Alavés for 1.2 million.
Corona revealed that re-signing Rioja for a second spell was special and required significant effort, nearly falling through before being completed in late August. The player, who scored the winning goal against Alavés on September 15th, has settled well and is happy at the club, according to the former director.
Corona's tenure, which saw him oversee scouting before taking full control of transfers after the departures of Albert Celades and César Sánchez, never included participation in UEFA competitions. The club fought to avoid relegation for three seasons. After his exit, the arrival of Ron Gourlay with a new backroom team failed to turn the situation around and culminated in his sacking, along with Lisandro Isei and much of his staff, last September.
Corona, who kept a low profile after leaving, said he worked with honesty and commitment to Peter Lim's plan, who never proposed a specific player name to sign. "I assure you it was a pride and a privilege to have worked for Valencia CF in the difficult moment it was," he concluded. The challenge now falls to Braulio Vázquez, with a team urgently needing points, as seen in the standings, and facing a key run of fixtures to climb out of the bottom three.
More detail at superdeporte.es
