World Cup 2026: A Wave of Coaches Bids Farewell to National Teams

Notable names include coaches Roberto Martínez (Portugal), Julian Nagelsmann (Germany), Zlatko Dalić (Croatia), Ronald Koeman (Netherlands), and Marcelo Bielsa (Uruguay), all of whom parted ways with their national teams after a World Cup campaign that fell short of expectations.

According to a VNA correspondent in Africa, the continent's football also witnessed significant changes on the coaching bench. Coach Pape Thiaw left the Senegal team, Carlos Queiroz parted ways with Ghana, Hugo Broos no longer leads South Africa, while Tunisia simultaneously bid farewell to two coaches, Sabri Lamouchi and Hervé Renard, ushering in a reconstruction phase after the tournament.

In other regions, coaches Javier Aguirre (Mexico), Jamal Sellami (Jordan), Sebastián Beccacece (Ecuador), Miroslav Koubek (Czech Republic), Steve Clarke (Scotland), and Hong Myung-bo (South Korea) also stepped down after their teams failed to achieve the expected results at the 2026 World Cup.

The wave of changes on the coaching bench highlights the immense pressure on managers at the world's biggest football festival, where even a single unsuccessful campaign can end a project, regardless of past achievements.

The simultaneous search for new head coaches by many top national teams is expected to cause significant upheaval in the international coaching market in the coming months, as teams begin preparations for continental tournaments and the next World Cup qualifying campaign.