The Turkish Football Federation has confirmed that Vincenzo Montella has been removed as head coach of the Turkiye national team following a winless start to their Nations League campaign.
Turkiye have lost all four of their matches in the competition, with their latest run of results leaving Montella unable to continue in the role. The federation announced the decision in a statement released on Friday afternoon.
“It has been decided that Mr Vincenzo Montella will not continue as our national team,” the Turkish Football Federation said in a brief statement published on the TFF website.
Montella had been in charge since September 2023. During his time as head coach, he guided Turkiye to qualification for both EURO 2024 and the 2026 World Cup.
However, their EURO 2024 campaign ended in the last 16 with a 2-1 defeat by Austria, while their World Cup campaign came to an end in the group stage.
Turkiye’s four matches since the World Cup have also all ended in defeat. They were drawn in the same Nations League group as Italy and were beaten twice by the Azzurri during the September-October international break.
They also suffered a 3-0 away defeat by Belgium and lost 1-0 at home to France in their other recent Nations League fixtures.
Montella was without three of Turkiye’s most important players for the September-October international break. Captain Hakan Calhanoglu, Juventus forward Kenan Yildiz and Real Madrid player Arda Guler were all unavailable.
Those absences did not prove sufficient for Montella to retain his position, with the federation opting to end his tenure after the sequence of losses.
The defeat by France followed the heavy loss away to Belgium, while the two matches against Italy completed a run of four Nations League defeats. Turkiye were unable to claim a point from any of those fixtures.
Montella’s dismissal brings his spell in charge to an end after a period that included qualification for two major international tournaments, but also disappointing results in the latter stages of both campaigns.
The Turkish federation did not provide any further details in its statement about the decision or identify Montella’s successor.
