MFF Quietly Names Rastislav Božik New MNT Manager

Image property of the Vietnam Football Federation

Today, with little fanfare more than a simple Facebook photo share, the Mongolian Football Federation has announced Rastislav Božik new head coach of the senior men's national team. Božik holds an UEFA Pro license.

The Slovakian becomes the third consecutive European to lead the team after German Michael Weiss's historic tenure came to an end in January 2020. From their Serbian Vojislav Bralušić took the reigns as interim manager but the team did not play any matches during his tenure because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Božik has been involved with Mongolian football since 2019 when he came to the country as a coach educator and took the reins of the U16 and U19 national teams. In September 2019 the 43-year-old lead the U16 side in 2020 AFC U16 Cup qualification which resulted in a victory over Macu and a narrow 1-2 loss to giants Australia. The team also fell to Vietnam and Timor-Leste. Just two months later he lead the U19 squad in qualifying. After defeats to Vietnam and Japan, the team earned a victory against Guam to close out its campaign.

Before coming to Mongolia, Božik had two spells in his homeland at FC Nitra. From their he took his first head coach position with Son Dong Tam Long An in Vietnam before moving to the Middle East for various positions at Al Wahda and Al-Shaab in the United Arab Emirates.

Perhaps his most relevant experience to his new position were his many years as an assistant coach of the Malaysia national football team from 2006 to 2010 and 2011 to 2016.

Unless Mongolia is able to schedule friendly matches sooner, the new manager will first take the bench when the Blue Wolves' 2022 World Cup qualification matches resume in early 2021.