Assistants Darren O'Dea and Serge Costa are joining the coaching staff
The coaching staff for our first team squad is now complete. Darren O’Dea and Serge Costa have joined Yaya Touré’s coaching staff as assistants, while Timotej Vajdík remains from the previous staff.
Sky-blues are thus entering summer training with their final coaching staff in place. Darren O’Dea (on the left in the cover photo) has joined as an assistant and will primarily be in charge of the training process and tactics. The 39-year-old Irishman has been associated with Celtic FC throughout his playing and coaching career. At the famous Scottish club, he led the youth teams and the reserve team, and later worked as the manager of professional player development at Celtic. From the summer of 2025, he was an assistant at Swansea in the Championship, where he remained until November of last year.
Another assistant coach, primarily responsible for player development and progress, is Serge Costa (on the right in the cover photo). The 38-year-old Frenchman began his coaching career at a very young age. He has served as an assistant coach for French clubs Strasbourg, Amiens, and Le Havre, as well as for Standard Liège in Belgium. Most recently, he worked as an assistant coach at Amiens SC in France.
Timotej Vajdík remains from the original team of assistants at Slovan; he has primarily been in charge of opponent analysis and data analysis to date. Vajdík is one of the youngest graduates of the highest-level UEFA PRO coaching license, which he earned at the age of 32. He has spent his entire coaching career to date at Slovan Bratislava and is a young, promising coach who remains within our club.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the coaching staff from previous seasons who have concluded their time with the Slovan. Former assistant coach Ľuboš Benkovský, who has been with Slovan since the summer of 2023, is moving on to the Slovak national team. Current assistant coach Boris Kitka and fitness specialist Roman Švantner will also not be continuing with the coaching staff. Both have been part of the coaching staff since the arrival of Vladimír Weiss Sr. in 2021 and contributed to the team’s current successful championship run and qualification for the Champions League. We thank Boris Kitka, Roman Švantner, and Ľuboš Benkovský for everything they have done for Slovan, and we wish them all the best in their future careers and personal lives.
Matej Balun will continue in the role of fitness specialist on the coaching staff, and our physical therapists will also remain, with the exception of Radomir Mijatović, whom we bid farewell to at the final match of last season against Michalovce. The goalkeepers will continue to be under the watchful eye of the experienced duo Ján Mucha and Martin Krnáč.
