Spanish coach Santi Denia, 52, has been officially introduced as the new head coach of the Czech national football team. The announcement was made on Friday by the local football federation.
With this appointment, Denia becomes the first foreign coach to lead the Czech team. His contract is set for two years, with an option for extension.
Denia takes over from Miroslav Koubek, who resigned following disappointing results at this summer’s World Cup, where the Czech team failed to advance beyond the group stage. They secured only one point against South Africa and lost to South Korea and Mexico.
Santi Denia is the new Czech national team coach
“It is a tremendous honor to be here. Czech football has an extraordinary history, and I am extremely motivated by this project. My only wish is to start working as soon as possible,” the new coach said during his presentation, as reported by sportal.bg.
Denia arrives with an impressive track record, having led the Spanish Olympic team to a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games. He has also coached various youth national teams in Spain since 2010, including U17, U19, and U21. Most recently, he was in charge of Al Shahaniya in Qatar last year.
Denia’s debut with the Czech team in the Nations League will feature two home matches, against Croatia on September 26 and against England three days later.
This tournament campaign will also see the Czechs face off against the homeland of their new coach, the world and European champions, Spain.
Commenting on the upcoming matches, Denia remarked, “I was born in Spain and worked for the federation for 15 years, but now things are different – I want to win against Spain.” He is a close friend of the Spanish coach, Luis de la Fuente, who led the team to their European and World titles.
