MINSK, 20 June (BelTA) – Mikhail Markhel has been named new head coach of Belarus national football team. This decision was made at the meeting of the executive committee of the Belarusian Football Federation, BelTA has learned.
Earlier Markhel was the head coach of the Junior National Team which has successfully started in qualification for EURO 2019. Markhel replaced Igor Kriushenko in the post of the National Team head coach, under the command of whom the team had an unfortunate start in EURO 2020 qualification. Belarus lost 4 games in a row: away from the Netherlands (0:4) and Northern Ireland (1:2) and at home from Germany (0:2) and Northern Ireland (0:1).
Belarus will play the next match in the qualifying group C in Tallinn on 6 September, against Estonian team.
Mikhail Markhel who is 52, is a master of sport of the USSR. He played more than 200 matches in his career at a professional level as a player in Belarus and abroad. He played in Russian, Hungarian and Yugoslav clubs.
He began his coach career in 1997, working with young players. Mikhail Markhel qualified four times in elite round of EURO championships with National Teams (U-17, U-19). In 2011, as a head coach assistant he helped to win bronze medals with U-21 Belarus National Team at UEFA European Under-21 Championship. In 2012 he was an assistant of the head coach of the Belarusian Olympic Football Team which took part in the Olympic Games in London.
In 2019 he was appointed head coach of U-21 Belarus National Team with which he successfully started in the qualification by beating Gibraltar 10:0, the largest victory in the whole history of official matches of Belarus teams in the international arena.
