Dubai: Former Japan and AC Milan manager Alberto Zaccheroni promised “only hard work” to achieve the dream of winning the Asian Cup on home soil in 2019, upon his unveiling as UAE coach on Tuesday.
The 64-year-old Italian, who also managed Inter, Lazio and Juventus, has joined on a 16-month deal for a reported $2.5 million (Dh9.2 million) replacing Edgardo Bauza, who resigned after just three competitive games in charge of the UAE to join Saudi Arabia last month.
Zaccheroni’s priority is to lift the spirits in camp after the UAE’s failed bid to reach the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and prepare the players for their hosting of the Asian Cup in 2019.
The Italian’s pedigree as a 2011 Asian Cup winner with Japan prompted the UAE FA to seek his services, but he immediately braced his players for the challenge.
“I began coaching at the lower levels and no one has given me anything for free,” he said. “I have worked for everything I achieved in Italy and I will do the same here, to achieve everything for the UAE. But it will be only hard work.
“This is a great challenge that motivates me very much and I am very excited and proud to be involved,” he added.
“I came here to succeed in this challenge, but we have to work together for that, and this is what I will tell the players.
“These players have great talent and I will try to cooperate with them to achieve the desired goal, but football is a team game and we need to work collectively to achieve the best results.”
Asked how realistic it was to lift the title on home soil, he added: “It’s not easy to say now.
“The most important thing is to be competitive and to do this we need to construct a project. Only when I get to talk to the players will I get a clear idea.
“My goal is to build a team and when we see the performance of a good team it does not come easily, it is through working well phase by phase.
“I also want to create a personality for the national team and regardless of the opponent on the pitch we must impose that character.”
Of the players, he said: “I’ve seen them in videos and saw many of them in a friendly against Japan [in September 2012] when I was in charge of Japan and we beat them 1-0. I saw that they are very good at that time and played a very good game.
“Everyone in Japan spoke very highly of the UAE, but I’m not the type of coach to go looking for jobs, I like to go where I’m wanted and luckily the UAE FA called and I accepted immediately. It didn’t take long to agree.
“I have to concentrate on the future now and not what happened in the past,” he added of the low mood in camp after the UAE’s failed bid to qualify for Russia 2018. “It’s a very big and important challenge for everyone to collaborate on and do our best so that people can change their feelings about the disappointment of not qualifying.”
