Scotland gambles on Sebastien Pocognoli, a young Belgian with no experience as a national team boss, in push for Euro 2028

Scotland has found its replacement for Steve Clarke, and the choice stands out for how unconventional it is: Sebastien Pocognoli, a 39-year-old coach who just weeks ago didn't even have a club. The Scottish Football Association (SFA) confirmed his appointment to take charge of the national team with a clear target on the horizon, Euro 2028, a tournament Scotland will co-host.

The Belgian arrives after an abrupt exit from Monaco, who fired him on June 1 following a season in which the Principality club finished seventh in Ligue 1 and missed out on the Champions League. It was a rough departure, sure, but it doesn't erase what he did before that: in 2025 he led Union Saint-Gilloise to the Belgian league title, something the club hadn't achieved in no less than 90 years. That achievement is what put his name on the radar of several clubs and federations across Europe.

Clarke, for his part, left the Scotland job after the team was eliminated from the World Cup without making it out of the group stage. It was a low-key farewell, the kind everyone saw coming, and now the SFA has decided to go with a completely different profile: young, full of fresh ideas, and with recent experience on the continent.

Pocognoli signed a two-year contract, running right through to the 2028 tournament. The federation itself didn't hold back on praise when introducing him, calling him "one of the brightest emerging coaching talents in Europe." The SFA's director of football, Craig Mulholland, echoed that sentiment when describing what fans should expect from his arrival:

He will bring an aggressive, attacking style of play that will excite supporters.Craig Mulholland

The coach himself made no secret of his excitement for the challenge, and even took a moment to talk about something that stuck with him: the atmosphere he saw from Scotland's fans during their first World Cup appearance in 28 years.

When I first heard about the interest, I was immediately excited by the opportunity.Sebastien Pocognoli

As a former Belgium international, Pocognoli knows international football well, though this will be his first challenge as a national team manager. There's no time to ease in either: his first matches in charge will come in the Nations League, in late September, against Slovenia and Switzerland. Two demanding tests to start finding out whether that "aggressive, forward-thinking" style the federation talks about begins to take shape on the pitch.