Nikita Simonian, Acting President of the Russian Football Union (RFU), stated that Fabio Capello of Italy will become the new head manager of the Russian national team. Actually, Simonian has confirmed what has long been talked about. On July 13th, after the talks between the RFU and the Italian specialist, the captain of the Russian team, Andrei Arshavin, spoke about the appointment of Capello, but at the time this information was not officially confirmed. Today, Simonian said that Capello will soon fly to Moscow to negotiate the terms of the personal agreement. The contract with the 66-year-old manager will be signed on 18 or 19 July.
According to the media, Capello will sign a two-year contract till World Cup 2014 in Brazil. His salary will be lower than the salary of the previous manager of our team, Dick Advocaat. Capello will earn 10-12 million euros during two years in Russia. It is expected that Igor Shalimov, former manager of the Russian women's national team, or Dmitri Alenichev, the manager of Arsenal, will become Capello's assistant,
Meanwhile, Vitali Mutko, Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation, noted in an interview to RNS that it was too early to talk about the appointment of the head manager of the Russian national team. "Well, how can he be appointed? When the manager is appointed, this means that a contract is signed. A contract has not been signed. There is a certain procedure," he said.
Looking back, Fabio Capello is mentioned in the list of 13 specialists with whom the RFU wanted to hold talks about working with the Russian national team. This list was published on the official site of the RFU.
This list contained the following names, besides Capello: the former Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola, the former manager of the Italian national team Marcello Lippi, the former manager of Liverpool and Inter Rafael Benitez, the former manager of Tottenham Harry Redknapp and Marcelo Bielsa from the Spanish League team Athletic Bilbao. There were also some Russians on this list: Valeri Gazzaev, Yuri Semin, Anatoli Byshovets, Valeri Nepomniaschi, the former manager of Tom, Andrei Kobelev, the manager of Krylya Sovietov, and Yuri Krasnozhan, the manager of the second team.
The media also published information about the fact that the former head of the RFU, Sergei Fursenko, signed a contract with Roberto Mancini, the manager of Manchester City, during Euro 2012. However, the Italian specialist has signed a new contract with "City", according to which he has become the highest-paid team manager in England.
The next match under the guidance of the new manager of the Russian national team against the team of Côte d'Ivoire will be held on August 15 in Moscow.
