Carlos Alós: Dismissal from the Belarusian national team — absolutely unexpected

Carlos Alós. Photo: football.by

— It's sad, because, in my opinion, we could have given more to the national team. We worked with the team for over two years — sometimes the results were good, sometimes not so good. We had a decent finish to the European Championship qualifying tournament, then fought until the last moment to advance to League B of the Nations League. Yes, we couldn't qualify for the World Cup, and that's probably why it was decided to part ways with us, — football.by quotes the specialist.

"I believe that our work was not finished — I had a contract for the next year, and I wanted to prepare the team for the next Nations League [the tournament is scheduled for autumn 2026, the next qualifying tournament for the 2028 European Championship will take place in 2027]. Anyway, I accept the federation's decision and respect it," he added.

Carlos Alós noted that his dismissal was absolutely unexpected.

"Initially, I planned to arrive in Belarus a bit later. I told the management: if needed, we can meet and discuss any issues, if not — we will calmly prepare for the next year, plan friendlies, observe candidates for the national team. Then I received a call, inviting me to come to Minsk for the "Star Ball" [December 2]. During this ceremony, everything was normal, we communicated a bit with [football federation chairman] Yevgeny Buloychik, no new information was received. However, the day before leaving home, I received another call and was urgently invited to the federation. And there, its chairman told me that a decision had been made to terminate cooperation," the coach said.

Carlos Alós coached the Belarusian national team from August 2023. Under his leadership, the national squad played 26 matches, securing 6 wins, 10 draws, and suffering 10 defeats.

In the qualifiers for the 2024 European Championship, Alós took over midway through the qualification; under him, the team won twice, drew three times, had one defeat, and finished fourth in the group behind Romania, Switzerland, and Israel, and ahead of Kosovo and Andorra.

In the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, the team had four defeats: against Greece (1:5), Denmark (0:6), and Scotland (0:2, 1:2), followed by two draws with Denmark (2:2) and Greece (0:0) and last place in the group. Before the start of the qualifiers, the team was set an unrealistic goal of finishing second in the group.

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