After the end of the performance of the Russian national team at Euro 2012, both football specialists and fans agree that the main national team needs a radical update. But the revolutionary changes will have to be carried out not by Dick Advocaat, whose contract with the Russian Football Union has not been renewed, but by the new, as yet unnamed head coach.
In the list of applicants for the main position in the Russian team, they name mainly foreign specialists. One of them is 66-year-old Italian Fabio Capello, who led the English team to the final of Euro 2012, and also led it in the previous cycle of the World Championship. His work with the English Football Federation was interrupted after John Terry was stripped of the title of team captain by the federation without the consent of the head coach. After five years of work with the British national team, Capello turned out to be the most successful coach in its history - the team won two-thirds of all matches played.
Of the domestic candidates, the most likely figure is Alexander Borodyuk, who has been working with the country's main team for the tenth year. He was the first assistant for both Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat, so it is hardly possible to find among the candidates anyone more deeply devoted to the problems and prospects of the current squad. However, if the football federation does not conclude an agreement with a new head coach in the coming weeks, it will be Borodyuk who will have to prepare the team for the upcoming match with the national team of Côte d'Ivoire in mid-August.
Among other Russian candidates, two more coaches are named, who are also working with national teams now. This is the head of the second national team of the country, Yuri Krasnozhan, and the coach of the youth team, who previously worked with the national beach soccer team, Nikolai Pisarev. The fourth Russian on the list is Valery Gazzaev, UEFA's Coach of the Year 2004-2005 and arguably the most charismatic person among the Russian contenders.
From foreigners, besides Fabio Capello, two Germans are predicted to be Dick Advocaat's successors - the current coach of the national team of this country Joachim Loew and Bernd Schuster, who until now has only coached club teams, including the famous Real Madrid. Josep Guardiola also did not manage the national teams, but over the past five years under his leadership, the first team in the UEFA rating, Barcelona, has won a lot both in Spain and in international tournaments. There is also an Italian Luciano Spalletti who twice made Zenit St. Petersburg the champion of Russia in the list of contenders.
