Ivan Hasek stepped onto the coaching path 25 years ago
September 10th in Prague Ukrainian national team will play with the Czech national team within the framework second round of the group stage of the League of Nations. The blue and yellow will be confronted the youngest team of the quartet and the most experienced coach of the group. The coach of the Czech national team Ivan Hasek started his coaching career 25 years ago and even faced Shakhtar in the Miners’ first Champions League.
When coaches of the Ukrainian national team or experts, assessing the team’s performance at Euro 2024, say that the blue-and-yellows had the youngest roster at the tournament, they are being disingenuous. According to this indicator, Ukraine was fourth, with an average team age of 26.3 years – the same was the roster of the Netherlands.
The youngest team at Euro 2024 was the Czech Republic with an average age of 25.5 years, which is three months younger than Turkey (25.8) and six months younger than England (26.1). The Czech team became even younger at the Nations League – 25.3 years. The Czech Republic is the youngest team in the quartet: the average age of the Albanian team is 26.2 years, while the Georgian and Ukrainian teams are 26.6.
At the same time, the Czech Republic has the most experienced coach. 60-year-old Ivan Hasek began his independent coaching work when the 47-year-old coach of the Georgian national team Willy Sagnol spent his last season in Monaco before moving to Bayern, 50-year-old Serhiy Rebrov played for Dynamo, and the Ukrainian’s peer – the coach of the Albanian national team, Brazilian Sylvinho – moved from Corinthians to Arsenal.
Hasek was appointed head coach of an elite division club at the age of 35, heading his native Sparta. The specialist is a true football pilgrim. During his career, he managed to work in seven countries (including Japan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia), with 10 clubs and three national teams (in addition to the Czech Republic, these are the national teams of Gabon and Lebanon).
This is the second time Hasek has taken charge of the national team. He first took charge of the team in July 2009, during the final stretch of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. The Czech Republic was placed in a group with Slovakia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Poland and San Marino, and after six rounds had eight points: two wins, two draws and two losses. In four matches with Hasek at the helm, the team scored the same eight points, but ended up trailing Slovenia and Slovakia by four and six points respectively, and the coach left the team.
It is noteworthy that despite his long coaching career as a mentor, Hasek only once crossed paths with Ukrainian teams. It happened in Sparta, in the 1999/2000 season in the Champions League group, which became the first for Shakhtar, which knocked out another Prague club, Slavia, in the qualification. Sparta with Hasek won at home 3:2 (one of the goals was scored by Rosicky, Zubov scored for the Miners, plus an own goal by Hornat), but lost in Donetsk – 1:2 (Jarosik – Gleveckas, Zubov).
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
