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Russian football short of top-level domestic coaches

Fabio Capello has been invited to become the Russian football team chief coach, acting President of the Russian Football Union Nikita Simonyan said earlier

MOSCOW, July 19 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian football is experiencing difficulty finding top-level domestic coaches, Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko said.

“The football community has many questions about the appointment of Fabio Capello of Italy the chief coach of the Russian team. Specialists and fans would like to see a domestic specialist at the helm. But if we look at the premier league, we will see with the naked eye that practically all leading clubs are coached by foreigners. Unfortunately, there are very few qualified Russian coachers and there is no virtually no choice,” Mutko said.

The minister personally would like to see a different specialist as chief coach of the Russian team. “I would prefer Jose Mourinho of Portugal to take this job. I think he is the best coach in the world, but he is with Real Madrid right now and it’s pointless to discuss about his candidature,” Mutko said.

He believes that the appointment of Capello is the best solution under the circumstances in order to lead Russian football to a new level. “He has tremendous experience, he has the spirit of the victor and he is among the top 5-10 coaches in the world,” the minister said.

Fabio Capello has been invited to become the Russian football team chief coach, acting President of the Russian Football Union Nikita Simonyan said earlier.

“We have decided to offer the post of chief coach of the Ryussian football team to Fabio Capello of Italy. I think he and his representatives will arrive in Moscow shortly for final talks on the terms of the contract and for signing it. I think this will happen on Wednesday or Thursday,” Simonyan said.

The first talks took place on July 12. According to Mutko, Capello had produced “the most favourable impression” on the Union and Sport Ministry officials.

Mutko told Itar-Tass that Capello is well aware of all peculiarities of work with the Russian team and had confirmed his wish to work in Russia and actively communicate with his Russian colleagues.

Capello played as a midfielder for such clubs as Roma, Juventus and Milan, as well as the Italian national team for which he played 32 matches and scored eight times.

He started his coaching career in 1987 and coached Milan, Real, Roma, Juventus and the British team. He led Milan to a 4:0 victory in a match against Barcelona in the Champions League in 1994.

The post of chief coach of the Russian national team became vacant after the end of the contract with its pervious coach Dick Advocaat, following the poor performance of the Russian football team at Euro-2012.