Juan Carlos Oliva

Juan Carlos Oliva Fornos (born 4 January 1965) is a Spanish football manager.

Football career
Born in Mequinenza, Province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Oliva started coaching at an early age, his beginnings being in amateur football. In 2005 he arrived at Deportivo Alavés, being initially an assistant.

In early 2006, Oliva was appointed at the first team following the sacking of Chuchi Cos, being in charge for five games – three wins, one draw and only one loss, against FC Barcelona – before being dismissed himself by eccentric club chairman Dmitry Piterman. Alavés would finally suffer relegation from La Liga.

Returned to the third level with CE L'Hospitalet, Oliva led the Catalans to the fourth position in the regular season and the subsequent promotion playoffs, which ended without success. After a few months in Greece with Aris Thessaloniki FC, he returned to his country and its division three, being one of three managers for Villarreal CF B as the Valencian side finished in midtable.

Oliva returned to the top flight in 2008–09, acting as assistant for Manolo Zambrano's successor Lucas Alcaraz as Recreativo de Huelva finally ranked in the 20th and last position. In late January 2010 he was fired by UD Salamanca, but the Castile and León club finally managed to stay afloat in the second tier.

On 6 December 2010, Oliva joined Gimnàstic de Tarragona of the second division, replacing the dismissed Luis César Sampedro as the team ranked in last position. He managed to finally lead them out of the relegation zone, notably with a 3–1 home win against eventual champions Real Betis on 15 May 2011.

After 11 matches without one win in 2011–12, Oliva was relieved of his duties at Nàstic. Subsequently, he had a series of spells as assistant manager under Quique Sánchez Flores.

On 18 June 2018, Oliva was appointed at Cypriot club AC Omonia. On 22 October, after three consecutive league defeats, he was sacked.

On 5 February 2019, Oliva joined Lleida Esportiu. He left by mutual consent in June, after failing in his objective of reaching the play-offs.

On 10 September 2019, Oliva was named in Sánchez Flores's staff at Watford.