Scotland have appointed Sebastien Pocognoli as their new head coach. The 39-year-old, who guided Union Saint-Gilloise to the Belgian league title last year, replaces Steve Clarke on a two-year deal. Pocognoli was a free agent after leaving Monaco in June.
Capped 13 times by Belgium, the former left-back played for Genk, AZ Alkmaar - where he won the Eredivisie under Louis van Gaal - Standard Liège, Hannover 96, West Brom Albion, Brighton and USG. Pocogonoli does have some limited experience of international football at youth level, where he managed Belgium's U16 and U18 sides. But this is his first international job - and just his third head coach role in senior men's football.
Clarke left the Scotland job after guiding the nation to their first World Cup since 1998. But the Tartan Army were sent home at the group stage after one win from three games. Pocognoli said: "It's an honour to be asked to become the head coach of the Scotland national team.
"When I first heard of the interest, I was immediately excited about the opportunity. Scotland's supporters are famous for their passion - most recently at the World Cup in the USA - and I have experienced it myself as a player for Belgium when we played in 2013. "Along with my coaching staff, I will do everything I can to give them a team to be proud of and build on the success that has been achieved already by my predecessor.
"Since negotiations began, I have been doing a lot of research, asking a lot of questions and looking at areas that we can build on. I am hugely excited by the prospect and look forward to working with the players to achieve even more success. "We don't have long until the first camp, so the coming weeks will be spent preparing for the UEFA Nations League and putting those plans into action on the training pitch when we meet up next month." Pocognoli is familiar to British audiences from his spells at West Brom and Brighton.
At the Baggies, the left-back made 21 appearances for the then-Premier League club in two years, before dropping down to the Championship to play on loan at Brighton. Before his time in England, he was part of AZ Alkmaar's title-winning team in the Netherlands in 2009, while he also featured for Belgian clubs Genk and Standard Liege. During a second spell at Liege after leaving England, he won the Belgian Cup in 2018, but retired three years later in his early 30s.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
