Milan Machala..the most successful and famous coach in the Arabian Gulf
A world coach who left his mark in Arab football
Milan Machala was born on August 4, 1943, and is considered one of the most long-serving coaches in the Arabian Gulf. His beginnings in training was with SK Sigma Olomouc in 1980, a former Czech sports club, after that, he decided to leave his country to train the Cypriot club Larnaca for two years, Then he returned in 1990 to coach the Czech club Banik Ostrava for four years.
Machala was appointed coach of the Czechoslovak national football team for four years, during which time he attracted the attention of many clubs and teams, especially the Middle East.
In 1994, he moved to Kuwait to train Kazma Club, and won many titles with it, such as the Kuwaiti League Championship in 1994 and 1996, in addition to the Emir of Kuwait Cup and the Crown Prince Cup in 1995.
His great success with Kazma Club made the Kuwaiti Federation appoint him coach of the national team, with whom he directly won the Gulf Cup twice in 1996 and 1998, and qualified for the semi-finals of the Asian Nations Cup that was held in the United Arab Emirates in 1996.
In 1997, he coached the UAE national football team in the Confederations World Cup after agreeing with the Kuwaiti Federation to loan him, and he won second place in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.
After that, he coached the Saudi national football team, and the team qualified for the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup in 1999, and also supervised the Saudi national team in the Asian finals in 2000, but was dismissed from his position after the defeat against the Japanese team in the first matches to receive the technical management of the Saudi national coach Nasser Al-Johar, then Machala coached the Oman national football team for a short period in 2001, and then moved to the United Arab Emirates to train Al-Nasr Club before returning to the Sultanate of Oman to coach the national team in its first participation in the 2004 Asian Cup in China.
In Gulf 17, Machala managed to develop good performance, Oman succeeded in qualifying for the final against Qatar, the host country, and the Omani team lost on penalties. Sultan Qaboos bin Said – may God have mercy on him – honored Czech coach Milan Machala, who led the Omani team to win second place in the 17th Gulf Cup, He was awarded the Order of Merit, second class.
In Gulf 18, the Omani team managed for the first time to beat the host country 2-1, in front of more than sixty thousand spectators, then beat Kuwait and Yemen with a single score 2-1.
With the UAE club Al-Ain, he achieved several achievements, most notably the Emir Cup. He also led the club to the final match that it lost against the Saudi Al-Ittihad Club in 2005, then returned to coach the Omani national team for the third time before training the Bahrain national football team in April 2007.
In 2018, Al-Ahly Club of Qatar announced the dismissal of the Czech coach Milan Macala, the coach of the first football team, and a consensual agreement was reached with him to work as a technical advisor to the first team and benefit from his great experience in the training field.