Sergio Navarro head coach and president Ike Thierry Zaengel president

The first-division football team of DVSC starts the pre-season on Wednesday, led by the Spanish Sergio Navarro.

The 46-year-old Spanish professional is arriving from Atletico Bilbao, having led one of the most effective football academy in the world during the last three years. The pro-licence coach, who had also played at Villarreal, previously worked in various roles at Villarreal (youth methodology director), Levante (assistant coach), Rubin Kazan (assistant coach, head of youth development) and Karpaty Lviv (head coach), before taking over the leadership of the Athletic Club de Bilbao Academy (Lezama). Sergio Navarro obtained his university degrees in football studies at the universities of Valencia and Barcelona.

The selection of the new head coach was strongly influenced by his extensive and valuable experience and work in international football, particularly within the elite level of youth development. His appointment is symbolic of our club’s intention to move forward and develop along the path of integrating young homegrown players into the first team more efficiently and effectively. The experience, work ethic and philosophy represented by Sergio Navarro perfectly fits with our concept as we have many talented young players with great potential (a recent example is the two Hungarian Youth Cup titles that we’ve won last weekend). With the help of such a professional, our players can develop further for the benefit of both Debrecen and Hungarian football overall. We are glad and hopeful that such an expert has accepted our invitation and will support us in building this strategic direction.

The direct assistants of Sergio Navarro will include Álex Pallarés, who has previously worked as head coach at first-division Latin American clubs and Bilbao B in the 2022/23 season, now joining as assistant coach, as well as Sergio Manas Garcia, who will take on the role of strength and conditioning coach, having previously worked at the academies of Castellón and Villarreal. Pablo Alberola, who spent the last three years at the DVSC Football Academy as the local head of methodology as part of the cooperation with Villarreal CF, will also be a member of the staff. His responsibilities will include maintaining communication between the first and the second team as well as facilitating and coordinating the upward movement of players. János Balogh goalkeeper coach, Tibor Dombi assistant coach, Dávid Szalóczy analyst and Patrik Kalydy physiotherapist will stay as members of the staff.

The team will start the pre-season with medical examinations and trainings on Wednesday. From Sunday until July 5, the squad will be in a training camp in Austria, playing practice matches against FK Miercurea Ciuc, CFR Cluj and the Czech Sigma Olomouc.