Santi Denia’s opening matches as Czechia coach have pitted him against Spain, the country where he built players for 15 years, and against England, the nation he knows better than any other. The first week ended with a 2-0 defeat by England in Prague and a touchline exchange with Thomas Tuchel: Denia walked along the touchline, shook the England coach’s hand and said something he thinks he had never said at full-time before. “See you soon.” Tuchel replied in kind. Seven days later, they meet again at Wembley, Denia’s side having gone via Oviedo and Tuchel’s via Rijeka.
“Four matches in 11 days, no time to train, for anything; I haven’t heard a single national coach say they like the new setup,” Denia says, though there is a big smile with it. The compressed calendar is one complaint; the opposition is another matter entirely. In Oviedo his team faced his country and his players. In London, for the second time in a week, they face the nation he has watched grow up.
Of Spain’s 26 World Cup winners in New Jersey, 23 played under Denia during his 15 years at the Spanish federation, where he coached the under-15s, 17s, 19s, 21s and 23s and worked across the academy structure. He helped restructure Spain’s academy system and is a European champion and Olympic gold medallist as a coach. His path crossed England’s throughout: his Spain under-17s beat England on penalties to win the 2017 European Championship, England took revenge in that year’s World Cup final, and England beat Spain in the 2023 European under-21 final, Curtis Jones scoring the winner and James Trafford saving a penalty. His last Spain match, in 2025, was also against England.
“When you work for Spain, it’s normal to cross paths with England,” he says. “I see St George’s Park with Luis de la Fuente. I see England in Huelva. They came to see us work; we went to Bisham Abbey to see them.” He credits FA investment in youth for England’s under-17 European Championship, their under-17 World Cup win in India and their under-21 European Championship: “Infrastructure and player development is the basis of everything.” England, he argues, are among the two or three best teams in the world and are “no distance” from a World Cup final.
He is a long-standing admirer of Phil Foden, whom he calls “differential”, and defends the FA against the idea that this England generation is falling short: “You’re this close to winning a World Cup,” he says, holding a thumb and forefinger a hair’s breadth apart.
One England player he rates especially highly is Anthony Gordon, who has suggested England should not try to replicate Spain. “Gordon? What a player! What a footballer, my God. He’s at the same level as … I don’t know, I was going to say Lamine,” Denia says. “Young, daring, one-on-one, speed.” His wider point is about learning rather than copying: “Every country has its essence, you have to respect that, embrace it. You also can’t change overnight; success isn’t immediate, it’s a process. In 15 years with the inferiores, we developed, evolved, adapted. See what other federations do. That’s not copying, it’s learning.”
The Czechia job came out of the World Cup, where Denia watched Spain beat Argentina and ran into Radek Bejbl, the former Czech international he played alongside at Atlético. Bejbl offered to send his résumé to Pavel Nedved, Czechia’s general manager; Denia also met federation president David Trunda in New York and again in Prague with Nedved. Miroslav Koubek had resigned. Bejbl is now on Denia’s staff.
He addresses the squad in English, helped by assistant Pablo Amo and by Bejbl, with the occasional Spanish swearword slipping out. “Football is a universal language,” he says. Getting to the World Cup was an achievement; the immediate objective now is qualification for the Euros, alongside building a structure of departments with clear roles, defining the profile of player Czechia wants and scouting to find it. “We have to be faithful to the essence of Czechia and leave our mark too.”
The football so far has brought a 3-1 defeat by Spain in Oviedo and a loss to Croatia, and Denia makes no secret of wanting to beat his old employers: “And I want to beat them. I’ll call Luis, say: ‘That’s enough now’.” Luis de la Fuente, he says, has the best players, “but you have to manage them and he’s a maestro, the best in the world without doubt.”
Watching Spain’s World Cup triumph produced a sense of déjà vu, particularly when Ferran Torres scored the winner: Torres had also scored in the under-19s European Championship final and won the under-17s Euros. Denia recalls Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí arriving at an under-15s tournament in Sweden, and taking Yamal into the under-19s at 14, a record. Rodri he first saw as a tiny under-14 at Atlético, pointed out by academy head José María Amorrortu. Before Rodri’s under-17 debut in Sweden, his advice was simple: “Don’t go to war: they’ll win. You’re the smart kid, you think faster: that’s how you win.” The growth spurt came later, at Villarreal.
After 15 years of teaching as much as coaching, Denia is dreaming of what Czechia might become. A European Championship in England would suit him: “I’d be delighted to play there again. And imagine another final with England! I’m dreaming here, aiming high, but why not?”