Željko Sopić continues his career in Lithuania: Kauno Žalgiris seeks new momentum ahead of the Champions League
Željko Sopić, the Croatian football coach and former midfielder, has found a new appointment in Lithuania, where, according to reports by Croatian sports media, he is expected to take over Kauno Žalgiris, the reigning Lithuanian champion and a club preparing to compete in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. Sportske novosti reported on June 28, 2026, that the deal had been agreed and that Sopić would lead the team from Kaunas through the remainder of the season, while Index stated on the same day that he was expected to begin working with the squad at the start of the new week. Formal contract details, including the duration of the cooperation and the composition of the coaching staff, had not, according to the available information, been published separately on the club’s official channels at the time of writing. Still, the context is clear: Kauno Žalgiris is looking for stability after a coaching change, and Sopić is getting a job that immediately brings him high-stakes matches. For the 51-year-old specialist, this is a new foreign stop after work in the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Poland, but also his first appointment in which he takes over a reigning national champion immediately before entering European qualifiers.
The club from Kaunas changes coach after a historic season
Kauno Žalgiris enters this moment with a very specific burden of expectations. The club’s official announcement from October 2025 states that the team had then secured the first Lithuanian championship title in the club’s history, doing so four rounds before the end of the championship, after a victory over FA Šiauliai and a result that made the competition unreachable. That title was not only the greatest success of Žalgiris’ football section, but also a ticket to the Champions League qualifiers, which opened a new level of international visibility for the club. According to the club’s official profile, today’s FK Kauno Žalgiris grew out of the FC Spyris project, created within the Kaunas football school Tauras, and has carried the name Kauno Žalgiris since 2016. Precisely because of that, the current season has a dual character: on one hand, the club is defending the most important trophy in its history, and on the other it is trying to confirm that last year’s breakthrough was not a one-off peak. In such circumstances, a coaching change does not mean only a change on the bench, but also an attempt by the management to protect competitive continuity before the most visible part of the season.
Official Kauno Žalgiris had earlier announced its parting with Eivinas Černiauskas, the coach who led the team to its first title in 2025 and won the Lithuanian Super Cup at the beginning of 2026. In its explanation, the club stated that the decision was made after the defeat to Gargždų Banga, and president Mantas Kalnietis said that the parting was difficult because it involved a coach with whom a historic trophy had been won, but that the run of weaker results had lasted too long and that the team needed a shake-up. In the same announcement, the club stated that Kauno Žalgiris had not won eight consecutive league matches during that period. Such information explains why the search for a new coach happened in the middle of the season, rather than in a calmer period between competitive cycles. Because of that, Sopić is not arriving at a club that has time for long adjustments, but at a team that must very quickly combine the training process, tactical corrections and psychological recovery.
The European schedule leaves no room for a slow start
The most demanding part of Sopić’s Lithuanian beginning is connected to Europe. UEFA confirmed in its official draw announcement that Kauno Žalgiris will meet Drita, the champion of Kosovo, in the first qualifying round of the 2026/27 Champions League, and that the first legs of that round are scheduled for July 7 and 8, with the return legs on July 14 and 15. On UEFA’s match page, it is stated that Kauno Žalgiris and Drita will play the first match on July 7 at the Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas, while the return leg is scheduled for July 14 in Pristina. Kauno Žalgiris’ official announcement on ticket presales also emphasizes that the club opens its European campaign against Drita and that this is a new chapter after the first Lithuanian championship title. This means that the new coach, if the takeover is carried out according to the announced plan, will face a European opponent almost immediately after arrival. For a team that has recently changed its coaching staff, this is a particularly sensitive schedule, because in qualifiers the details, set pieces, the form of key players and the ability to avoid early result setbacks often decide matters.
Drita is not an opponent that Kauno Žalgiris can view solely through the prism of a smaller league’s reputation. The Kosovan team has been regularly present in European qualifiers in recent years, and the very fact that it enters the two-legged tie as a national champion makes it an opponent with a clear competitive identity. For Kauno Žalgiris, an additional challenge is that the Lithuanian championship is played in a spring-autumn rhythm, so European matches arrive in the middle of the domestic season, not after the classic summer preparations common in much of Europe’s leagues. According to the official TOPLYGA table shown on June 28, Džiugas was leading, while Kauno Žalgiris was near the top of the standings with fewer matches played than some of its competitors. Such a schedule further complicates the task, because the domestic fight for the top cannot be separated from European obligations. Sopić will therefore have to balance the short-term result and the longer-term stabilization of play, without the luxury of a large number of training sessions between matches.
Sopić’s coaching path: from Croatia to Poland and now Lithuania
Sopić does not arrive in Kaunas as an unknown name, but he does arrive after a period in which his career lost part of its results momentum. The coaching profile published on Transfermarkt states that he worked at Rudeš, Dinamo’s second team, Dinamo’s first team as an interim solution, Sabah, Gorica, Rijeka, Widzew from Łódź and Osijek, along with earlier work at Al-Ain as part of the coaching staff. Sportske novosti highlighted that Lithuania will be his fourth foreign adventure after the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Poland. His strongest recent reputational capital is still tied to his work at Gorica and Rijeka, where he managed to create a recognizable competitive rhythm and extract the maximum from squads that did not always have the biggest budget compared with the competition. His mandate at Rijeka in particular strengthened the impression of a coach who can quickly raise intensity and impose a clear structure of play. Exactly such a profile will be important in Kaunas, where the club is not looking for a long-term laboratory, but for a coach who must immediately produce an effect.
On the other hand, his last two jobs did not bring the stability he was seeking. PiłkaNożna.pl, citing Widzew Łódź, reported in August 2025 that Sopić had stopped performing the duties of head coach after recording five wins, two draws and eight defeats at the Polish club. NK Osijek officially announced in February 2026 the mutual termination of the contract with Sopić, stating that his short mandate began at the end of October 2025 and ended after 13 competitive matches, with one win, six draws and six defeats when the cup match against Varaždin is also included. In its report on the new appointment, Index emphasized that the Polish episode and the stay in Osijek were short and unsuccessful in terms of results, but also that Sopić still enjoys respect because of his earlier work at Gorica and Rijeka. In that sense, Kauno Žalgiris is not only a new job for him, but also an opportunity to break a run of short mandates and return to a European-relevant context. For a coach who has already worked in different football cultures, the Lithuanian champion can be both a test of adaptability and a test of the ability to achieve a quick results recovery.
Why Kauno Žalgiris is a logical, but demanding choice
At first glance, going to Lithuania may look like a move away from the main football markets, but in sporting terms this appointment has several layers. Kauno Žalgiris is the reigning national champion, plays European qualifiers and comes from a system in which one good summer result can significantly change the club’s financial and reputational picture. For Sopić, this is a different type of pressure from the one he had at Widzew or Osijek: there, the problems primarily involved ending negative runs and stabilizing the team in stronger leagues, while in Kaunas he must lead a club that wants to defend its status as the best in the country. That difference changes the tone of the job. The new coach is not entering a project satisfied with mere survival or a calm mid-table position, but a dressing room that recently won the title and is therefore measured against its own historic maximum. Precisely because of that, possible success can have a strong effect on his career, while failure would further open questions about continuity after a series of short appointments.
Sopić’s working style, according to the impression he created at earlier clubs, has often been associated with energy, direct communication and clear demands placed on players. Such an approach can be useful in a team that, according to president Kalnietis, needed an impulse after a long run without a win. But the same approach must be adapted to a new environment, a different language, a different championship rhythm and a dressing room in which expectations have already been defined by winning the title. Kauno Žalgiris needs not only a motivational reaction, but also tactical stability in two-legged ties in which mistakes are punished more quickly than in a league system. In European qualifiers, coaches often do not have time for gradual construction, so the initial decisions about formation, the role of key players and the plan against Drita may determine the impression of the entire mandate. Sopić will therefore have to quickly assess which elements of last season’s championship model are still sustainable, and where changes are needed.
Three fronts and one big opportunity for a comeback
According to Croatian media reports, Sopić faces a fight in Lithuania on several competitive levels: the domestic championship, the national cup and the Champions League qualifiers. Index stated that Kauno Žalgiris had already reached the cup semifinals, while the official schedule and club announcements confirm that the European focus opens on July 7 against Drita. Such a combination of competitions can be attractive because it offers the coach quickly measurable goals, but at the same time reduces the margin for error. In the championship, the team must remain in the fight for the top; in the cup, the reigning champion is expected to fight for the trophy; and in Europe, every two-legged tie is both a sporting and financial turning point. Sopić therefore arrives in Kaunas at a moment when the season cannot be treated as a building phase, but as a series of decisions that must deliver a result almost immediately. For the club, this is an attempt to continue the championship season without a major decline, and for the coach a chance to erase the impression of the last unsuccessful episodes on the European stage.
It is also important that this appointment comes in a league that is not followed by the international public with the intensity of the larger European championships, but whose champion enters a space of much broader visibility in Champions League qualifiers. A good result against Drita would not only extend Kauno Žalgiris’ European summer, but would also give Sopić an argument that even outside the strongest leagues he can quickly organize a winning team. Failure, on the other hand, would not necessarily close domestic objectives, but it would reduce the room for calm work and increase the pressure already in the first weeks of the mandate. In that sense, the Lithuanian job is at the same time risky and logical for Sopić: risky because it begins without a long preparation period, and logical because it returns him to a situation in which wins can quickly change the narrative. Kauno Žalgiris is looking for a coach who will end a run of weaker results and prepare the team for the European threshold, while Sopić is looking for a club in which he can again prove that earlier successes were not an exception. The first answers will arrive already at the beginning of July, when the Lithuanian champion opens the two-legged tie with Drita and enters the most demanding part of the season.
Sources:
- Sportske novosti / Jutarnji list – report on the agreement between Željko Sopić and Kauno Žalgiris and the context of his earlier foreign jobs (link)
- Index.hr – report on Sopić’s takeover of Kauno Žalgiris, the schedule for the start of work, the state of the team and the competitions awaiting the club (link)
- FK Kauno Žalgiris – official announcement on the first Lithuanian championship title in the club’s history (link)
- FK Kauno Žalgiris – official announcement on the parting with Eivinas Černiauskas and the reasons for the coaching change (link)
- UEFA – official draw for the first qualifying round of the 2026/27 Champions League with the tie FK Kauno Žalgiris – FC Drita (link)
- FK Kauno Žalgiris – official information on the start of the European campaign against Drita and the ticket presale (link)
- TOPLYGA – official table and schedule of the Lithuanian championship on June 28, 2026 (link)
- NK Osijek – official announcement on the mutual termination of the contract with Željko Sopić and his record at Osijek (link)
- PiłkaNożna.pl – report on Željko Sopić’s departure from Widzew Łódź and his results record at the Polish club (link)
- Transfermarkt – overview of Sopić’s coaching career, previous clubs and basic professional information (link)