Pedro Martínez is the coach of Real Madrid basketball since July 2026, when the white club announced his incorporation to replace the Italian Sergio Scariolo after a season without titles. The Catalan coach, born in Barcelona on June 29, 1961, is 65 years old and is one of the coaches with the most experience in Spanish basketball, with more than 1,100 games directed in the ACB League. His arrival at the Madrid team occurred after a prominent stage at Valencia Basket, with which he won the Endesa League and the Supercup of Spain in the 2025-2026 season, in addition to receiving the award for best coach of the Euroleague.
Real Madrid officially announced his signing on July 6, 2026, through a three-season contract that will extend until June 30, 2029. His incorporation meant a new change of direction in the basketball section, after the entity chaired by Florentino Pérez decided to dispense with Scariolo, who had returned to the club just a year earlier. Martínez took office with the goal of recovering the team's competitiveness in major competitions and has already achieved his first title as Madrid coach, the Euroleague Supercup of September 2026, held in Abu Dhabi.
From the youth categories of Joventut to the bench of Real Madrid
The trajectory of Pedro Martínez began long before his arrival at Real Madrid. The Catalan coach started his career in 1986 in the youth categories of Joventut de Badalona, where he later served as an assistant to the first team before taking on responsibilities as head coach. Since then, he has developed an extensive career in national basketball, passing through clubs such as Manresa, Gran Canaria, Valencia Basket, Baskonia, Estudiantes, Girona, Menorca, Granada, Salamanca, Tenerife and Ourense, among others.
One of the longest stages of his career took place in Gran Canaria, which he directed in different periods and where he managed to consolidate a competitive project in the Liga Endesa. He also left his mark on BAXI Manresa, which he coached between 2019 and 2024, before returning to Valencia Basket to face his second stage in the Valencian team. His accumulated experience and his ability to develop sports projects have been some of the characteristics that have accompanied his trajectory, marked both by the direction of teams with limited budgets and by his participation in European competitions.
The titles of Pedro Martínez as a basketball coach
The record of Pedro Martínez includes two Liga Endesa titles, both won with Valencia Basket. The first came in 2017, when the Valencian team achieved its first league championship after overcoming Real Madrid in the final. The second was achieved in 2026, again at the helm of the taronja team, culminating a season in which he also won the Supercopa de España.
To these successes is added another Supercopa de España, obtained in 2005 with Baskonia, and a Korac Cup won during his early years of career. However, one of his most important individual recognitions came in April 2026, when he was awarded the Alexander Gomelski trophy for the best coach in the Euroleague, an award granted through the votes of the competition's own coaches.
During that season, Valencia Basket finished the European regular phase in second position, with 25 victories and 13 defeats, a performance that consolidated Martínez among the prominent coaches on the continent. The award made him the fourth Spanish coach to receive this distinction, after Xavi Pascual, Pablo Laso, and Chus Mateo.
How Pedro Martínez's Real Madrid plays
Pedro Martínez's style is characterized by the pursuit of fast basketball, intense defense, and constant ball circulation, with the aim of involving as many players as possible in offensive actions. During his presentation as coach of Real Madrid, the coach explained that his intention was to build a recognizable team, capable of competing with intensity and maintaining a unique identity throughout the season.
"I like to have an active defense, a defense that is proactive. I like to share the ball", Martínez assured in an interview granted to the official media of the white club. The coach also defended the importance of distributing responsibilities among the members of the squad and combining the experience of the veterans with the energy of the young players.
In September, during the preparation for the first official competitions, Martínez insisted that his project was not simply about transferring the model he had developed in Valencia to Real Madrid. "We would like to have an identity and for our game to be recognizable", he stated, although he acknowledged that the individual characteristics of the players must determine the way the team competes.
His arrival at Real Madrid after the departure of Sergio Scariolo
The signing of Pedro Martínez occurred after a complicated season for the Real Madrid basketball, which ended the 2025-2026 season without winning titles and decided to put an end to the second stage of Sergio Scariolo on the bench. The Italian coach had returned to the club in 2025 after his prolonged tenure with the Spanish national team, but the sporting results led the entity to seek a new technical manager.
To incorporate Martínez, Real Madrid had to negotiate his departure from Valencia Basket, with which he had recently renewed his contract until 2028. According to the information published at the time, the white club paid a buyout clause close to one million euros to secure the services of the Catalan coach.
Martínez himself acknowledged that the possibility of coaching Real Madrid represented one of the great challenges of his career. "It is an honor and a pride to be part of this entity, I know the legacy and I will give my best to be up to the task", he stated during his first statements as Madrid coach.
His first title with Real Madrid in 2026
The beginning of Pedro Martínez's stage at Real Madrid was marked by the conquest of the first edition of the Euroleague Supercup, held in Abu Dhabi on September 18 and 19, 2026. The white team overcame Dubai Basketball in the semifinals and subsequently defeated Olympiacos 93-89 in the final, with a standout performance by Edy Tavares, named the best player of the match.
The victory allowed the Catalan coach to debut his record at the helm of Real Madrid and start the 2026-2027 season with a continental title. However, Martínez's main challenges remain linked to the Endesa League, the King's Cup, and the Euroleague, competitions in which the white club aims to regain its presence among the main candidates to win the trophies.
At 65 years old, with more than three decades of experience on the benches and a contract in force until 2029, Pedro Martínez faces a new professional stage at the head of one of the most demanding teams in European basketball, after a career developed entirely in Spanish clubs.