St. Petersburg (Russia), Dec 11 (DPA) Luciano Spaletti of Italy has been appointed coach of the Zenit St Petersburg team, the Russian top football club announced Friday.
The former Roma coach Spaletti, 50, will sign a three-year contract before the end of the year at the 2007 Russian champions and 2008 UEFA Cup winners.
He takes over from Dick Advocaar, who moved on to coach the Belgian national team and currently Dutch champions AZ Alkmaar as well.
Zenit said on their website that Spaletti faces the objective “to return (to) the domestic title, gain stable success in European competitions, establish firm connection with the youth department, leading to emergence of new local players in the main team.”
Zenit finished third in the 2009 Russian season. They have reached the round of 32 in the Europa League.
Spaletti coached Roma to a 2007 Serie A runner-up finish and won back-to-back Italian cup titles with them in 2007 and 2008. He resigned in September 2009 after a poor start into the season.
rounak