Club president Raúl Martín Presa made the formal announcement.
"Today is a day of farewells. We are here to say goodbye to Iñigo Pérez, who has been our coach for the last two and a half years."
Pérez had turned down a contract renewal. His reasons, delivered with characteristic clarity, were rooted not in ambition but in honesty.
"I realised I wasn't the same type of energy this season," he told the assembled players, staff and media — among them Oscar Trejo, Isi, Camello, Balliu, Lejeune and Unai López. "I couldn't regenerate it. The internal conversations begin and a fear starts to grow. It reaches a point where it dissipates, but you cannot ignore it because you'd be betraying yourself."
He was clear that the decision had not been forced on him and that it was the right one, even if it was painful.
"It's very difficult, but it's necessary. You have to be capable of making sure that the longing doesn't become a sadness you can't get out of. In sport, these are cycles that close."
On the Conference League final loss, he told his players something he wanted them to carry.
"I wrote down a phrase that fits the final. We often hear that losing a final leaves a scar that never heals. I told them that for me that's not true. When you lose, it hurts — but you have to ask yourself whether you gave everything. We did. The pain is real, but with time it will become a memory, and then it will make us happy."
The moment he said would never leave him came from earlier in his tenure — not the final, but a day at the Camp Nou where Rayo's survival hung in the balance.
"I've never shouted so much. There have been many days of ecstasy at Vallecas. The energy of this place — you have to have a certain type of energy, because in the end it will come down on top of you."
He also delivered a message he described as the most important thing he had to say — a direct appeal not to interpret his departure as weakness.
"Even though today we are here for a farewell that is about me as a person, I am a firm defender of not showing weakness. Please do not think that because I now leave, everything is going to crumble. Before me there was Andoni Iraola and a promotion was achieved. I understand there is sadness today, as there was after the final, as there is when Trejo leaves, when others leave — but this club is well enough organised and well enough structured to continue having the ambition to go on producing magnificent seasons. Life goes on."
Presa added his own tribute.
"I met him on his first day. He leaves a better coach than he arrived. Thank you for the work and the hours he has put in. Those hours have represented a large part of our success. This will always be his home."
Pérez arrived at Vallecas days after retiring as a professional player, having made over 400 appearances across the top three divisions of Spanish football and the Europa League. He came as an assistant to Andoni Iraola. When Iraola left for Bournemouth and tried to take him along, Brexit and a work permit gap kept Pérez in Spain. He became head coach in January 2024, taking over in 14th place, and never looked back.
His record: survival in his first season, a top-eight finish with 52 points and European qualification in his first full campaign, a Conference League final appearance in his last.
Spanish media report his next destination is Villarreal, where he would succeed Marcelino following the club's third-place La Liga finish.
In 102 years of Rayo Vallecano's history, there has been nothing quite like it.