Ján Kocian (born 13 March 1958) is a Slovak professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who last managed

Slovak First Football League The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following th ...

club ViOn Zlaté Moravce. He also held managerial positions across central Europe and Asia.

Playing career

During his playing days, he made 209 appearances for Dukla Banská Bystrica between 1979 and 1988 before moving on to German club

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St. Pauli (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg. The team plays in the Bundesliga from the 2024–25 Bundesli ...

, where he made another 147 appearances up to 1993. He was capped 26 times by

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. Playing at sweeper as the team reached the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, Kocian was voted the country's player of the year in 1990.

Managerial career

Kocian began his coaching career with Czech side Petra Drnovice before moving to the German Bundesliga clubs Rot-Weiß Erfurt and

Sportfreunde Siegen Sportfreunde Siegen is a German association football club based in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia. After going through insolvency in 2008, the first team was forcibly relegated to the fifth-tier NRW-Liga. Promotion to fourth division Regionallig ...

. He worked as an assistant at 1.Bundesliga clubs 1. FC Köln and

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

. He was appointed the new head coach of the Slovakia national team on 2 November 2006, replacing

Dušan Galis Dušan Galis (born 24 November 1949) is a Slovak politician and a former association football, football player and manager. In the Czechoslovak league he played 226 matches, scoring 89 goals. He was capped eight times for Czechoslovakia national ...

. Previously, he had worked as an assistant to former national coach Dr. Jozef Vengloš between 1993 and 1995. He was last seven months Assistant Coach from Karel Brückner by

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

between 4 March 2009. On 8 December 2010, Kocian was appointed head coach of the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

team Jiangsu Sainty On 28 June 2011, Kocian was announced as the

Hong Kong First Division League The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the List of oldest football competitions, third oldest in Asia, after Calcutta and Bombay. Moreover, it is ...

team

South China AA South China Athletic Association (known simply as South China, SCAA, ) is a Hong Kong professional sports club with a football team competing in the Hong Kong First Division League, Hong Kong First Division, the second-tier league in Hong K ...

's new head coach. South China finished third in the 2011–12 Hong Kong First Division League. Kocian did not agree on a new contract after the end of the season. In the 2013–14 season, Kocian managed Ruch Chorzow to third position in the Ekstraklasa table and qualified almost in the last qualifying round for Europe League Group stage. He earned by the

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

Coach of the Year at the end of season. On 18 April 2019, Kocian returned to Poland and to his former club

Ruch Chorzów Ruch Chorzów () is a Polish professional association football, football club based in Chorzów, Upper Silesia. It is one of the most successful football teams in Poland, having won fourteen List of Polish football champions, Polish Championship ...

as an advisor. On 25 October 2018, Kocian was announced as manager of the Yemen national team. After the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

, he left the national team. In spring of 2022, he returned to his native Zlaté Moravce to manage local Fortuna Liga club FC ViOn and aid in avoiding relegation in 2021–22 season. In early October, Kocian came to terms of release with ViOn Zlaté Moravce for medical reasons.

Football affiliated activities

Since mid-2010s, Kocian began to feature more prominentnly as an expert analyst in the media, including national broadcaster RTVS for national team matches or major tournaments, such as

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. He also writes as a columnist contributor to leading Slovak sports daily newspaper ''Denník Šport''.

Honours

Manager

Individual *

Coach of the Season: 2013–14

References

External links