Ján Kocian


Ján Kocian is a Slovak football coach and former player who last managed the Ruch Chorzów.

Football career

Playing

During his playing days, he made 209 appearances for FK Dukla Banská Bystrica between 1979 and 1988 before moving on to German club FC St. Pauli, where he made another 147 appearances up to 1993.
He was capped 26 times by Czechoslovakia. Playing at sweeper as the team reached the 1990 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals, Kocian was voted the country's player of the year in 1990.

Coaching

Kocian began his coaching career with Czech side FK Drnovice before moving to the German clubs FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt and Sportfreunde Siegen. He has also worked as an assistant at 1. FC Köln and Eintracht Frankfurt.
He was appointed the new head coach of the Slovakia national football team on 2 November 2006, replacing Dušan Galis. Previously, he had worked as an assistant to former national coach Dr Jozef Vengloš between 1993 and 1995. He was last seven months Assistant Coach from Karel Brückner by Austria between 4 March 2009.
On 8 December 2010, Kocian was officially announced as the new head coach for the Chinese Super League team Jiangsu Sainty F.C.
On 28 June 2011, Kocian has been announced as the Hong Kong First Division League team South China AA's new head coach. South China finished 3rd in the 2011-12 Hong Kong First Division League. Kocian did not agree on a new contract after the end of the season.
In the season 2013-2014 Kocian made Ruch Chorzow to third position in the Ekstraklasa table and qualified almost in the last qualifying round for Europe League Group stage. After this season was Kocian voted from the Ekstraklasa-League for “Coach of the year 2013-2014”.
On 25 October 2018, Kocian has been announced as the manager of the Yemen national team. After the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, he left the national team.
On 18 April 2019, Kocian returned to Poland and to his former club Ruch Chorzów as a adviser.