▲ Interim National Football Team Coach Roberto Moreno
Spanish coach Roberto Moreno, 48, will take charge of the national football team as interim manager for six A-matches in the second half of the year.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) held its 7th Board of Directors meeting for the year 2026 at the Korea Football Park in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, on September 1, and voted to appoint Moreno as the interim head coach.
A coaching staff of six members, including Moreno, has been finalized.
Following the departure of former coach Hong Myung-bo after the team's elimination from the group stage of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup, Moreno will fill the vacant position and lead six A-matches—four in September and October, and two in November.
His contract runs until November 27, with a possibility of extension.
The KFA included a condition in the contract that, depending on the evaluation results of these six matches, he could be entrusted with the helm through the 2027 Asian Cup to be held in January next year.
This decision appears to take into account the possibility that the appointment of a new KFA president might be delayed depending on the pace of governance reform in the football community.
This is because it is difficult to appoint a permanent national team coach while the presidency remains vacant.
If Moreno produces good results, the likelihood of him becoming the permanent head coach in the future will also increase.
He has previous experience being promoted from interim coach to permanent coach during his time with the Spanish national team.
As a member of the coaching staff under renowned manager Luis Enrique, who currently leads Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Moreno temporarily managed three matches in March 2019 when Enrique stepped down due to his daughter's illness, and was appointed permanent manager in June of that year.
However, he had to relinquish his position after five months when Enrique returned.
Moreno served as the assistant coach for FC Barcelona (Spain) from 2014 to 2017, and after leaving the Spanish national team, he managed clubs such as AS Monaco (France), Granada (Spain), and PFC Sochi (Russia).
The entire coaching staff is also composed of Spaniards.
They are joined by assistant coach Eduardo Docampo, who worked with Moreno in Sochi; training methodology and analysis expert Jacint Magriñà; Víctor Bravo Desoto, who has coaching experience in the lower leagues of Spain; physical coach Javier Chocarro, who has worked in major European leagues; and goalkeeper coach Nico Bosch, who has 10 years of experience in La Liga.
The KFA selected a head coach through an open recruitment process for the first time.
This follows the revised national team selection and operation regulations of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee in February.
According to these regulations, the national team head coach must, in principle, be selected through open recruitment.
The association decided at a board meeting held in late July to select this interim coach through open recruitment.
An evaluation committee composed of some members of the National Team Enhancement Committee and external evaluation members went through document screening, online interviews, face-to-face meetings, and contract negotiation processes, finalizing the final agreement last weekend.
It was reported that the final candidate list included Roberto Moreno, Domènec Torrent, Jesús Casas, and Erwin Koeman.
Hyun Young-min, head of the National Team Enhancement Committee, stated, "Since there was significant public interest in procedural legitimacy and fairness for this interim coach appointment, we put considerable effort into complying with the Sport & Olympic Committee's standards."
Hyun added, "Coach Moreno already has a high understanding of Korean football and showed impressive enthusiasm by proposing various tactical alternatives.
We expect that the Moreno coaching staff, selected through a rigorous process, will play their role in turning the atmosphere around and improving the performance of the national team."
(Photo provided by the Korea Football Association, Yonhap News)
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