GEORGIA: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - German Klaus Toppmoeller to be Georgia's national football team coach

Record ID: 643390

  • Title: GEORGIA: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - German Klaus Toppmoeller to be Georgia's national football team coach
  • Date: 11th January 2006
  • Summary: TBILISI, GEORGIA (JANUARY 9, 2006)(REUTERS) KLAUS TOPPMOELLER, GEORGIA'S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM COACH ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE)(German) KLAUS TOPPMOELLER, GEORGIA'S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM COACH, SAYING, "We are here to develop Georgian soccer and take it to the top level and this is a specific task, because we consider that there are many good Georgian players in Georgia and abroad who can play in the national side." KLAUS TOPPMOELLER SHAKING HANDS WITH NODAR AKHALKATSY, PRESIDENT OF THE GEORGIAN SOCCER FEDERATION JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE)(English) KLAUS TOPPMOELLER, GEORGIA'S NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM COACH, SAYING,"I think we have a very good team and few very good players for the future and I think we can go and play good qualification. We start on February 1st and then we make first selection from the players we have and in a half a year we [make selection] for the first qualification game in September." VARIOUS OF KLAUS TOPPMOELLER MEETING GEORGIAN PRESIDENT MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI (SOUNDBITE)(Georgian) GEORGIAN PRESIDENT, MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI, SAYING, "There is a Georgian proverb - here is a ball and here is a field - this means that you have a maximum opportunity to express yourself." EXTERIOR OF PRESIDENT'S CHANCELLERY BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 26th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA64H0RFT244R2HPBSRUB9XZB5
  • Story Text: German Klaus Toppmoeller will be Georgia's national football team coach. Toppmoeller has signed a two-year contract to coach Gerogia which takes effect from starts from February 1.
    Speaking to reporters in Tbilisi on Monday (January 9), Toppmoeller said he planned to take the Georgian national side to soccer's top level.
    "We are here to develop Georgian soccer and take it to the top level and this is a specific task, because we consider that there are many good Georgian players in Georgia and abroad who can play in the national side," said Toppmoeller.
    Toppmoeller also me Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Sunday.
    "There is a Georgian proverb - here is a ball and here is a field - this means that you have a maximum opportunity to express yourself," Saakashvili told Toppmoeller.
    He will replace caretaker coach Gaioz Darsadze, who quit following a poor World Cup qualifying campaign in which the Georgians finished second from bottom of European Group Two. Darsadze took over from Frenchman Alain Giresse who was sacked in July last year, midway through the qualifiers this year's
    next year's World Cup.
    Toppmoeller, 54, has been out of work since October 2004 when he was fired by Bundesliga club Hamburg SV after a string of poor results.
    He was named German Coach of the Year in 2002 after leading Bayer Leverkusen to the Champions League
    finals, the German Cup and second place in the Bundesliga. But the next season proved to be disappointing and Toppmoeller was sacked by Leverkusen in February 2003.
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