Here is a list of the coaches that will guide the 32 teams at World Cup 2018 in Russia. A number of nations are notorious for changing coaches even within months of major competitions. For example Saudi Arabia are on their third national team coach since September 2017. The current coach Juan Antonio Pizzi succeeded Edgardo Bauza who lasted only weeks and was preceded by Bert van Marwijk.
The competition begins on June 14, 2018 and further changes are unlikely but not impossible.
Russia: Stanislav Cherchesov, coach since August 2016, 54 years old. Previously at Legia Warsaw, Dynamo Moscow and others.
Saudia Arabia: Juan Antonio Pizzi, 49. Previously coach of Chile’s national team and several clubs in Mexico, Chile, his native Argentina and a season at Valencia in Spain.
Egypt: Hector Cuper, since March 2015, 62. Previously a successful coach in Europe with Inter Milan, Mallorca, Valencia and others, also briefly coached the Georgia national team.
Uruguay: Oscar Tabarez, since 2006, 70. One of the longest serving coaches at any level. Brief Uruguayan and European club stints in the years prior to 2006.
Portugal: Fernando Santos, since 2014, 63. Many years in the Portuguese and Greek leagues. Has been at all three big Portuguese teams (Benfica, Porto, and Sporting Lisbon) and the Greece national team as coach.
Spain: Julen Lopetegui, since July 2016, 51. Formerly coach of Spain’s U21, U20 and U19 teams.
Morocco: Herve Renard, since February 2016, 49. Coach of two Africa Cup of Nations winners (Zambia and Ivory Coast)
Iran: Carlos Queiroz, since April 2011, 64. Coached Real Mardrid for a season and was assistant at Manchester United under Alex Ferguson. Also coached Portugal and South Africa’s national teams.
France: Didier Deschamps, since July 2012, 49. World Cup winner as player. Coached Monaco, Juventus and Marseille.
Australia: Bert van Marwijk, since this month. Coached his native Holland to the final of World Cup 2010. Replaced the departing Ange Postecoglou.
Peru: Ricardo Gareca, since 2015, 59. Numerous coaching stints around his native Argentina and elsewhere in South America.
Denmark: Age Hareide, since December 2015, 64. A Norwegian who has had success at club level with Rosenberg. Coached his native country in the 2000s.
Argentina: Jorge Sampaoli, since summer 2017, 57. Left the high profile job of coaching Sevilla in Spain to rescue his native country’s faltering qualification for World Cup 2018. Succeeded Edgardo Bauza and Gerardo Martino. Previously coached Chile’s national team.
Iceland: Heimir Hallgrimsson, in sole charge since summer 2016, 50. Previously co-coach with Lars Lagerback.
Croatia: Zlatko Dalic, since October 2017, 51. Controversially replaced Ante Cacic.
Nigeria: Gernot Rohr, since August 2016, 64. Relative unknown who nevertheless has plenty of experience around the African continent.
Brazil: Tite, since June 2016, 56. Wanted as the coach long before he finally accepted following disasters of previous coach, Dunga.
Switzerland: Vladimir Petkovic, since 2014, 54. Previously coached Lazio and clubs in Switzerland and Turkey.
Costa Rica: Oscar Ramirez, since 2015, 53. Short stint as national team assistant and clubs around Costa Rica.
Serbia: Mladen Krstajic, since October 2017, 43. Controversially replaced Slavoljub Muslin after the latter helped secure qualification.
Germany: Joachim Low, since July 2006, 57. Succeeded Jurgen Klinsmann and has won the World Cup and been runners up and semi finalists too.
Mexico: Juan Carlos Osorio since October 2015, 56. Colombian who has held on to his job despite constant pressure. Previously an assistant at Manchester City.
Sweden: Janne Andersson, since 2016, 55. Previously assistant and head coach at several clubs in his native land.
South Korea: Shin Tae-yong, since 2017, 48. Replaced Uli Stielike after the German was on the verge of failing to get the team to World Cup 2018.
Belgium: Roberto Martinez, since August 2016, 44. Surprise choice to replace Marc Wilmots. Brought in Thierry Henry as assistant.
Panama: Hernan Dario Gomez, since February 2014, 61. Colombian previously in charge of the Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala national teams.
Tunisia: Nabil Maaloul, since April 2017, 55. Succeeded the highly experienced Henryk Kasperczak. Previously coached the national teams at senior and Olympic levels.
England: Gareth Southgate, since September 2016, 47. Former England U21 coach appointed after Sam Allardyce resigned.
Poland: Adam Nawalka, since October 2013, 60. One of the stars of the 1978 World Cup.
Senegal: Aliou Cisse, since 2015, 41. Formerly the U23 coach. As a player some experience in England and France.
Colombia: Jose Pekerman, since January 2012, 71. Highly regarded Argentinian with extensive experience and somewhat strange coaching style, including time as Argentina’s U20 and national teams.
Japan: Vahid Halilhodzic, since March 2015, 65. Replaced Javier Aguirre after the Mexican had to leave due to match fixing issues in Spain. Had success with Algeria at World Cup 2014
Leave a Reply