Slovakia National Team Crowned European Football Champions: Here’s What Happened

The Slovakia national football team has been independent for just over 30 years and has participated in the European Championship three times. Recently, UEFA recognized the team among the European champions. Here’s how this happened.

The key moment was Czechoslovakia’s victory in the 1976 European Championship. After Czechoslovakia split in 1993 into the Czech and Slovak teams, the original national team ceased to exist.

Previously, the success was credited only to the Czech team, but UEFA now acknowledges that many Slovak players were pivotal during that tournament. In the final match, eight Slovaks played, and the head coach, Václav Ježek, had Slovak assistant Jozef Vengloš.

As a result, without an official statement on UEFA’s website, the Slovakia national team is now recognized as a European champion.

This decision may influence other nations—for instance, Ukraine could now claim the silver medals from Euro 1988, as the USSR team that reached the final was largely composed of players from Dynamo Kyiv, under the guidance of famous coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi.