Jesús Casas

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Casas and the second or maternal family name is García.

Jesús Casas García (born 23 October 1973) is a Spanish football coach and the former manager of the Iraq national team.

Jesús Casas

Casas in 2024
Personal information
Full name	Jesús Casas García
Date of birth	(1973-10-23) 23 October 1973 (age 51)
Place of birth	Madrid, Spain
Youth career
	GE CASA
1985–1992	Cádiz[1]
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992–1993	Balón de Cádiz
1993–1995	Cádiz B
1994–1995	→ Sanluqueño (loan)
1995–1996	Jerez Industrial
1996–1998	Chiclana
1998–2001	Puerto Real
2001–2002	Jerez Industrial
2002–2003	Puerto Real
Managerial career
2003–2004	Cádiz (youth)
2004–2005	Cádiz B (assistant)
2005–2007	Balón de Cádiz (youth)
2007–2008	Balón de Cádiz
2008–2009	Cádiz B
2009–2010	Rota[2]
2010–2011	Deportes Romero[3]
2012–2013	Conil
2013–2014	Balón de Cádiz (youth)
2018	Watford (assistant)
2018–2022	Spain (assistant)
2022–2025	Iraq
Medal record Men's football Representing  Iraq (as manager) Arabian Gulf Cup Winner 2023 Iraq
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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.^[4]

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.^[5][6]

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.^[7]

On 19 January 2024, in the edition of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup held in Qatar, Iraq beat Japan 2-1, in what would be the Japanese’s first group stage loss in the tournament since 1988, and also broke Japan’s 10 win streaks in a row. The win also ensured that Iraq would top their group, which last happened in the 2007 edition of the competition, where Iraq went on to be crowned champions.

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, surrounding him in a threatening manner. The situation necessitated the intervention of security who escorted the journalists out. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) later decided to ban those journalists for covering any future AFC tournaments.^[8] The Iraqi Football Association showed their full support for Casas following the ordeal, as did the majority of the national team's fans. 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.

In 25 March, 2025, due to overwhelming popular discontent following Iraq’s loss against Palestine in the AFC 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Casas was sacked by the IFA. Casas had originally intended to continue as coach until the end of the qualifiers with the hope that Iraq would secure their entry into the World Cup, but the loss was seen as one that shattered the country’s hopes for World Cup qualification and so Casas had failed and his presence was deemed meaningless; ergo, his contract was terminated.^[9]

Managerial statistics

As of match played 25 March 2025

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Iraq	5 November 2022	present	34	18	8	8	56	34	+22	052.94
Total			34	18	8	8	56	34	+22	052.94

Honours

Manager

Iraq

• Arabian Gulf Cup: 2023