UEFA Nations League campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\nS\u00e9bastien is widely regarded as one of Europe\u2019s brightest emerging coaching talents. In his first season as a senior Head Coach, he won the Belgian Pro League with Union Saint-Gilloise – their first title in 90 years – took the club into the UEFA Champions League Group Stages for the first time in their history, and also won the Belgian Super Cup.<\/p>\n
After being named Belgian Coach of the Year he was appointed Head Coach of AS Monaco in 2025.<\/p>\n
Capped 13 times by Belgium, the former left-back played for Genk, AZ Alkmaar \u2013 where he won the Eredivisie under Louis van Gaal \u2013 Standard Li\u00e8ge, Hannover 96, West Bromwich Albion, Brighton & Hove Albion and USG.<\/p>\n
After hanging up his boots in 2021, he began his coaching journey, with USG\u2019s Under-21s, Genk Under-18s and Belgian Under-18s.<\/p>\n
S\u00e9bastien Pocognoli, Scotland Men\u2019s National Team Head Coach: \u201cIt\u2019s an honour to be asked to become the Head Coach of the Scotland National Team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first heard of the interest, I was immediately excited about the opportunity. Scotland\u2019s supporters are famous for their passion \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlong 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ian Maxwell, Scottish FA\u2019s Chief Executive: \u201cWe are delighted to have S\u00e9bastien on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the standout candidate from a thorough process: a very impressive individual, with a real desire to take on the role and a clear vision for how he wants to go about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cS\u00e9bastien inherits a talented squad who just took us to a first FIFA World Cup in 28 years, and I\u2019d like to reiterate my thanks to Steve Clarke and his staff for their work and the foundations they\u2019ve put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to see how we build on that ahead of a new UEFA Nations League campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig Mulholland, Chief Football Officer: \u201cS\u00e9bastien\u2019s appointment is an exciting moment for Scottish football. He is one of Europe\u2019s brightest and most sought-after coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will bring an aggressive, front-foot style of play that will excite supporters. He will now build on the outstanding work and excellent foundations left by Steve Clarke and his staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile our extensive search was informed by data and insight \u2013 and S\u00e9bastien\u2019s metrics matched what we believe necessary to enhance and evolve from a position of strength \u2013 it\u2019s as important to us that his personality and character will allow him to connect with a fantastic group of players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am delighted we have secured a talent like S\u00e9bastien and I look forward to this exciting journey ahead \u2013 starting next month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confirmation of S\u00e9bastien\u2019s backroom staff will follow in due course.<\/p>\n
Tickets for the upcoming UEFA Nations League matches remain available and can be purchased HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Scottish FA is delighted to announce the appointment of S\u00e9bastien Pocognoli as Scotland Men\u2019s National Team Head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-740136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}