Beirut (AFP) – The Lebanese Football Association made a change in the technical management of the “Cedars Men” team on Monday, by signing Croatian coach Nikola Jurcevic to replace Serbian Alexander Ilic.
Published on: 02/10/2023 – 16:19
2 minutes
The Federation terminated the Serbian’s contract by mutual consent, as the team’s results were disappointing in three friendly tournaments in India and the King’s Cup in Thailand.
The change comes a week before the national team heads to a preparatory camp in Montenegro, where it will face its national team in Podgorica on October 12, then face its Emirati counterpart on the 17th in Dubai.
The federation chose the new coach after “studying a large number of CVs of a number of coaches of Arab, European and American nationalities before the choice fell on the Croatian coach,” according to the official statement.
The new coach will be required to prepare the Lebanese national team in a short period for the upcoming challenges, as it opens its journey in the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup finals by facing its Palestinian counterpart on November 16.
Lebanon also qualifies for its third participation in the Asian Cup finals in Qatar next year, as it will face its Qatari counterpart in the opening match of the tournament at the Lusail World Cup Stadium, within the first group competitions, which also includes the teams of China and Tajikistan.
Jurčević (57 years old) had a presence in English, German, Russian and Croatian stadiums, in addition to experiences in Turkey, Austria and Azerbaijan.
His first professional experience was as a player with the Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb between 1984 and 1986, before moving to several clubs, most notably Austria’s Salzburg, Germany’s Freiburg, and Belgium’s Royal Antwerp. Jurcevic also participated with the Croatian national team between 1990 and 1996.
During his coaching career, he supervised the training of many clubs, including Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg, and he worked as an assistant coach with the English clubs West Ham, Turkish Besiktas and Russian Lokomotiv. At the national team level, Jurcevic worked as an assistant coach in the Croatia national team between 2006 and 2012, and then as technical director of the Azerbaijan national team in his last training station in 2019.
© 2023 AFP
2023-10-02 14:19:05
#Lebanese #national #team #replaces #Serbian #Ilicic #Croatian #Jurcevic
