Scotland are set to present former Eredivisie defender as new national coach
Sébastien Pocognoli is on the verge of becoming the new Scotland manager. According to The Herald, it is only a matter of time before the former AZ defender is unveiled.
The Scottish Football Association have been searching for Steve Clark's successor for some time. At the end of June, during the World Cup, he announced he was stepping down as manager. The Tartan Army opened the tournament with a meagre 1-0 win over Haiti, before Morocco (0-1) and Brazil (0-3) proved too strong.
Scotland then needed other results to go their way to progress. In the end, they went out on goal difference after Croatia had beaten Ghana (2-1). Scottish media blamed Clarke for the poor display and result against Haiti, which in their view laid the foundations for the elimination.
Clarke's successful seven-year spell with Scotland ended there and the association turned to the search for a replacement, with Pocognoli now on the verge of being unveiled. The former left-back, who played for AZ between 2007 and 2010, quickly made a name for himself as a coach after retiring.
At 39, Pocognoli started his coaching career with Union Saint-Gilloise Under-21s, before moving to KRC Genk Under-18s and then becoming Belgium Under-18 manager in 2023. He returned to Union in 2024, this time as head coach. In his first season, Pocognoli led the Brussels club to their first league title in ninety years. They also won the Super Cup.
Those performances did not go unnoticed beyond Belgium either. AS Monaco were looking for a successor to Adi Hütter and turned to Pocognoli in October last year, although he was somewhat disappointing with a seventh-place finish in Ligue 1. Monaco are therefore only playing in the Conference League this season.
On 1 June, Monaco sacked Pocognoli. After around 2.5 months out of work, he is now on the verge of being unveiled by the SFA. Pocognoli had already come close to a move to Scotland earlier this summer. Hearts ultimately opted for Pocognoli's compatriot Wouter Vrancken instead.
"After a search led by chief executive Ian Maxwell and Craig Mulholland (director of elite football, ed.), Pocognoli is now in the driving seat," The Herald assure. Scotland are back in action at the end of September/start of October. The Nations League matches against Slovenia, Switzerland, North Macedonia and Slovenia again are on the schedule.
