At the end of a 2-0 defeat by England in Prague, the Czechia coach turned left, walked along the touchline, shook Thomas Tuchel’s hand and said something he thinks he had never said at full-time: “See you soon.” To which Tuchel said back: “See you soon.” Seven days later, via Oviedo and Rijeka respectively, they meet again, at Wembley. This is the start of a new life, yet familiar faces await, warmth in every word. If Czechia’s opponents in this Nations League could not have been much worse, they could not have been much better either.
In Oviedo, Denia’s team played his country, his players; in London, for the second time in a week, they play the nation he knows better than any other, more footballers he has seen grown up. The opportunity to become Czechia’s coach came during a conversation with an old friend, at the World Cup where Denia watched Spain beat Argentina, the culmination of a long journey shared. Of Spain’s 26 champions in New Jersey, 23 had played under him during his 15 years at the federation, coaching the under-15s, 17s, 19s, 21s and 23s and working across the academy structure: those were his kids lifting the cup, stories to tell about when Rodri was tiny and Lamine Yamal tinier.
Along the way, if there were kids whose path he kept crossing, they were England’s. And so, as Czechia’s manager chats between matches – England, Spain, England again – and phone calls, mobile buzzing on the table, there is affection and admiration. There’s a fondness for Phil Foden going back a decade – “differential”, Denia calls him – and a defence of the Football Association and this England generation.
A European champion and Olympic gold medal-winning coach who helped restructure Spain’s academy system, Denia can see it coming. It was England his under-17s beat to win the European Championship on penalties in 2017, before England took revenge in that year’s World Cup final; and England who defeated Spain in the European under-21 final in 2023, Curtis Jones scoring the winner and James Trafford saving a penalty. It was also England against whom he coached his last Spain game in 2025 and it is, he says, fitting to encounter England, twice, in his first games with Czechia.
I see St George’s Park with Luis de la Fuente. They came to see us work; we went to Bisham Abbey to see them. I arrived at the Spanish federation in 2010 and the English FA is one that has grown the most.
You win an under-17 euros, an under-17 World Cup in India, an under-21 Euros because you have believed in investing in youth, supported their development. You provide them with opportunities and experiences that end up playing out at senior level. You depend on clubs, the talent pool, but infrastructure and player development is the basis of everything.” Among those Denia met often is Anthony Gordon.
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