The oldest league coach, Miroslav Koubek, will lead the Pilsen footballers in the following season as well. The 72-year-old coach extended his contract with Victoria for another year. The club, which Koubek led to the quarter-finals of the European Conference League this year, to the worst third place in the league and will fight with him for the domestic cup, announced this on its website.
“I appreciate the trust that the club has shown me and the support of the Victorian fans. At the same time, after a year of work, I have a positive feeling of mutual cooperation with the team and colleagues from the implementation team. It was these findings that played a significant role in my decision. I believe that we will build on the work, which we started in the current year, and we will try to push it a little further,” said Koubek.
He is experiencing his third coaching engagement on the Pilsen bench. In 2015, he celebrated his only title in the role of head coach with her, but he only lasted a year with the team. In August of the same year, the club’s management recalled him after being eliminated in the Champions League qualifiers and failing to enter the domestic competition. Before that, Koubek worked in Victoria in 2000 and 2001, when the team was relegated to the second division.
He returned again last June. Now, under his leadership, Viktoria managed three preliminary rounds of the Conference League, won the group without losing a point, knocked out Servette Geneva in the round of 16 and advanced to the quarter-finals of the cups for the first time. In it, she was not enough for last year’s finalist Fiorentina.
With Sunday’s 3:0 league win over Teplice, the West Bohemians already secured the worst final third place in the table before the extension part. Thanks to advancing to the final of the MOL Cup, in which they will challenge Sparta Prague on May 22, they are certain that they will play at least the 3rd preliminary round of the Europa League next season.
“First of all, I would like to say that Míra Koubek, together with her implementation team and the players, is doing a great job this season. We are rebuilding the team as we go, young players and foster children have joined it. We have experienced an extraordinary journey through cup Europe, and the cup final awaits us and we are sure of a start in the 3rd preliminary round of the Europa League in the coming year,” said CEO and Chairman of the Board Adolf Šádek.
“Already during the spring season, the coach and I talked about various options, and we finally sat down to discuss everything after the last round of the regular season. Our agreement was then established very quickly. We were interested in the coach continuing his work, as was Míra Koubek.” he added.
Overview of the oldest coaches in the Czech top flight (from the 1993/94 season)
1.
Miroslav Koubek
72 years, seven months, 27 days
Pilsen, April 28, 2024
2.
Vaclav Kotal
71 years, four months, 22 days
Hradec Králové, February 24, 2024
3.
Francis Cipro
68 years, one month, 17 days
České Budějovice, May 30, 2015
4.
Karel Jarolím
65 years, five months, 28 days
Mladá Boleslav, February 20, 2022
5.
Bohumil Páník
65 years, four months, 14 days
Karviná, May 14, 2022
6.
He owned Parsley
64 years, ten months, six days
Zlín, May 26, 2018
7.
Milan Boksa
64 years, six months, six days
Jihlava, December 6, 2015
8.
Ladislav Škorpil
64 years, five months, one day
Liberec, November 7, 2009
9.
Petr Council
63 years, eight months, two days
Jablonec, April 23, 2022
10.
Jaroslav Novotny
63 years, seven months, 14 days
Pardubice, August 27, 2022
