Jesús Casas
Jesús Casas García is a Spanish football manager.
Managerial and coaching career
Early career
Casas began his coaching career at age 29 with the youth sides of Cádiz CF. He later worked as match analyst for SD Eibar and FC Barcelona B, before becoming a scout and match analyst at FC Barcelona. He then returned to Cádiz, to become a director of their youth department, and in January 2018, he became an assistant to Javi Gracia at Watford.In summer 2018, Casas became an assistant to Luis Enrique and Robert Moreno in the Spain national team, a position he held until February 2022.
Iraq
On 5 November 2022, the IFA confirmed that Casas would take charge of the national team for four years on an annual payment of $1m split into monthly wages. Radhi Shenaishil was supposed to lead the national team for the Mexico and Ecuador friendly games in Spain, while Casas would take charge of the games against Costa Rica and Venezuela in Iraq, with his first game coming on 17 November 2022. The following matches were cancelled, as for Costa Rica match due to passport stamp issues at the border, while the match against Venezuela was called off for an unknown reason.He began with the national team officially on 30 December 2022 in a friendly against Kuwait as a preparatory match for the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup in Basra, which they eventually won after a 3–2 victory over Oman in the final, to be their first title in the competition since 1988.
On 19 January 2024, in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup held in Qatar, Iraq beat Japan 2–1 in what was Japan's first group stage loss in the tournament since 1988, and also broke Japan’s streak of 10 wins in a row. The win also ensured that Iraq would top their group, which last happened in the 2007 edition of the competition. In the Round of 16 knockout stage, Iraq lost 2–3 to Jordan, as Aymen Hussein was sent-off during the match for excessive celebration. At the press conference, several Iraqi journalists began to point and yell at Casas. The situation necessitated the intervention of security who escorted the journalists out. The Asian Football Confederation later decided to ban those journalists for covering any future AFC tournaments. The Iraq Football Association showed their full support for Casas following the ordeal. On 1 February 2024, Casas met with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani and the President of the Iraqi Football Association Adnan Dirjal where the incident was discussed, with Casas receiving further backing as Al Sudani promised the journalists involved would be investigated.
On 27 March 2025, following Iraq's 2–1 loss to Palestine in the 2026 AFC World Cup qualifiers, IFA held an urgent meeting that resulted in a unanimous decision to sack Casas and his staff. Casas' contract was terminated on 15 April 2025.