Crystal Palace's head coach Oliver Glasner celebrates with the trophy after winning the Europa Conference League final soccer match between Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig, Germany, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Robert Michael/dpa via AP)

After winning Crystal Palace's first European trophy in his final game as coach, Oliver Glasner needs to address the issue he's been avoiding.

His future.

Glasner leaves Palace as its most successful coach after winning the FA Cup last season and beating Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in the Conference League final on Wednesday.

Glasner told Palace co-owner Steve Parish as long ago as October that he wouldn't extend his contract when it expired at the end of this season. Even so, he said after Wednesday's final that he hadn't spoken to any other clubs.

“I canceled everything up till now. I had no desire and no energy to think about that or speak to anyone in any other club or say anything about it. I just felt obliged to be 100% concentrated on the guys, who deserved 100% of Oliver Glasner,” he said.

“In soccer, everything I say today is wrong tomorrow. So what I know for sure is that I'm going to celebrate with the players, drink a couple of beers and fly back to London tomorrow.”

Parish said on Thursday that there wasn't a chance to convince Glasner to stay.

“No, I think at the beginning we always knew the journey would be a limited time," Parish told Sky Sports. "Oliver has things that he wants to do. We’re lucky he came to our club at the time he did. We have got to look forward and so has Oliver. He’ll always have a special place in the heart of all the Crystal Palace fans."

Glasner's options seem to have narrowed since he made public his plans to leave in January. At the time, he was being linked to Manchester United, which had just made Michael Carrick interim coach after firing Ruben Amorim. Now, though, Carrick is United's permanent coach on a two-year contract.

Reports in German media have suggested the 51-year-old Austrian could be an option for Bayer Leverkusen if the German team opts to move on from Kasper Hjulmand after finishing sixth in the Bundesliga and missing out on Champions League qualification. That could potentially mean a return to Palace sometime since both teams are in next season's Europa League.

As well as a new coach, Palace faces uncertainty over the future of midfielder Adam Wharton, who starred in the Conference League final win and has repeatedly been linked with a move to bigger clubs.

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