Mystery surrounds the fate of Frenchman Rudy Garcia, the technical director of the Belgian national team, despite participating in the 2026 World Cup and reaching the quarter-finals, as several factors indicate that his departure has become likely.
It is expected that Rudy Garcia's career with the Belgian national team will end before the expected date, as he joined the Red Devils in January 2025, and the French coach's contract ends on July 31 of this year.
Mystery surrounds Rudy Garcia's future
Despite the Belgian national team reaching the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup, which achieved the initial goals of the Football Association, Garcia's future remains unclear.
While the French technical director succeeded in presenting a good performance against Spain, where the Red Devils were eliminated from the tournament due to a handball in the final moments, the prevailing opinion is that he will leave.
The Belgian newspaper "La Dernière Heure" reported that sports director Vincent Mannaert wants to wait a few days before evaluating the performance of the first team coach.
But there is another factor to be taken into consideration, which is that Rudy Garcia himself has not shown a real desire to extend his contract, and after the elimination against Spain, the Frenchman confirmed the state of ambiguity about his future.
Garcia stated during the press conference, after the defeat against Spain, with a goal without reply, stating that there are still doubts regarding his continuation in his current position.
Division over Rudy Garcia's stay with Belgium
Garcia said during his statements: "We will evaluate the tournament; there are many doubts about the future, we did our best to eliminate Spain, let's not talk about that; this is not the right time to discuss the matter."
It is worth noting that since his appointment as coach of Belgium, Garcia has only lost two out of twenty matches in which he led the Red Devils, and he accomplished the tasks assigned to him, especially keeping Belgium in the UEFA Nations League and qualifying for the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
But despite that, it seems that the main reservation about Rudy Garcia's stay stems from within the team, as while the Belgian national team players appreciate the coach's style in managing the system more than his predecessor Domenico Tedesco, they are more skeptical about his tactical choices.
Some team members believe that the Frenchman is not the ideal man to lead Belgium's new generation to a better level, and this evaluation may hasten the end of his tenure in the coming weeks, despite the convincing performance in the 2026 World Cup.
