FOOTBALL – SPANIARD Felix Sanchez was announced yesterday as the new head coach of Bahrain’s senior men’s football national team.
The Bahrain Football Association (BFA) posted on social media that it has reached an agreement with Sanchez to take over the kingdom’s squad, replacing former tactician Dragan Talajic from Croatia.
The BFA had just last week announced it had terminated the contracts of Talajic and his coaching staff by mutual consent following their early exit from their much-anticipated title-defence in the 27th Gulf Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Sanchez has now been called upon to guide the senior men’s internationals, who are set to compete in a pair of major competitions early next year, including the AFC Asian Cup 2027 in January and February as well as in the continental qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2030 which kick off in March.
The 50-year-old becomes only the second Spanish coach appointed to lead Bahrain, following the brief tenure of Juan Antonio Pizzi in 2023-24.
The BFA said on its social media post that Sanchez will begin his tenure with Bahrain during the next Fifa international match window, scheduled between November 9 and 17. The BFA added that Sanchez will be introduced to the national media once he arrives in the kingdom in the coming period.
Sanchez was formerly head coach of Qatar’s senior men’s national team from 2017 to 2022 and was also in charge of their under-19 and under-23 squads. He guided the Qataris to the AFC Asian Cup title in its 2019 edition and also spearheaded their cause as hosts in the Fifa World Cup 2022, where they were eliminated from the group stage.
Sanchez was also head coach of Ecuador’s senior men’s squad from 2023-24 following his stint in Qatar, where he was also at the helm of Qatar Stars League club Al Sadd for over a year.
Aside from his successes at the senior men’s level, Sanchez also guided Qatar’s junior men to the title in the AFC U-19 Championship in 2014, and their Olympic team to third place in the AFC U-23 Championship in 2018.
Earlier in his coaching career, Sanchez coached the youth team at Spanish giants Barcelona.
Sanchez now has the uphill task of ending Bahrain’s recent poor run of form, which included losses in all three of their preliminary round games in this year’s Gulf Cup.
Those defeats are part of an alarming losing streak since the nationals took the title in the 26th Gulf Cup in January 2025. Since that event, they were booted out of continental qualifying for the Fifa World Cup 2026, losing their remaining games against Japan, Indonesia, Saudi, and China; and also suffered defeats in three of four friendly games leading up to the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 in Doha, Qatar, where they triumphed in their qualifying contest but then lost two of their three group fixtures, dropping out of that tournament.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh