Karel Jarolím at 70: "I would have helped Koubek, but he wanted all the glory for himself"

Former Czech national football team coach Karel Jarolím has celebrated his 70th birthday, and in a candid interview explained why he never returned to the national team as an assistant to current head coach Miroslav Koubek. He also revisited old grievances — his missed trip to the 1982 World Cup and his dismissal from the national team in 2018.

A comeback to Koubek's side that never happened

A few months ago, Jarolím considered the possibility of returning to the national team as an assistant to Miroslav Koubek — the very coach he himself had once brought into the setup as his own assistant. According to Jarolím, he offered Koubek help in organizing the team's attacking play, but was turned down via text message: the football association decided that the national team couldn't have two older coaches at the same time.

Jarolím is convinced that if Koubek had truly wanted him by his side, he could have insisted — just as Jarolím himself once did when he brought Koubek into the coaching staff despite the doubts of then-federation chief Miroslav Pelta. "As far as I know him, he didn't want to share the glory of reaching the World Cup with anyone," Jarolím said, adding that instead of a triumph, Koubek ended up having to clean up after the national team's disastrous showing at the recent World Cup qualifiers in the USA, where the side failed to produce any real football.

Sacked on a plane, and a grudge against Berbr

Jarolím also recalled the dramatic end of his tenure with the national team in 2018: he was fired right on board the plane returning from Rostov-on-Don after a crushing 1:5 friendly defeat to Russia. According to the coach, football association vice-president Roman Berbr had been building toward that decision for a long time — ever since Jarolím insisted on appointing Koubek and Boris Kočí as his assistants, against Berbr's wish to install his own man on the staff.

During his four years in charge of the national team, Jarolím's side failed to reach the World Cup play-offs in Russia, losing out to Germany in their qualifying group. Still, the coach notes that around 90% of the players he tried out during that period went on to continue playing for the national team even after his departure.

The bitterness of 1982 and coaching success

Jarolím describes his missed trip to the 1982 World Cup in Spain as a player as an even greater disappointment. At the time, the midfielder, who played for Slavia, was confident he'd make the squad — especially after scoring in a warm-up match against Greece — but coach Jozef Vengloš ultimately left him out.

As a coach, Jarolím achieved far more: he won the Czech championship twice with Slavia (2007/08 and 2008/09), led the club into the Champions League group stage for the first time in its history, won a domestic double with Slovakia's Slovan in the 2010/11 season, and also claimed the King's Cup with Saudi Arabia's Al-Ahli, reaching the Asian Champions League final with the club in 2012.

Speaking about the current national team head coach, Spaniard Santi Denia, Jarolím expressed cautious optimism, saying the new coach has the ability to give the team its own identity and make its play more balanced — though he doubts the Czech squad could ever truly replicate the Spanish national team's style.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz