© EuroFootball.com
After more than two years of hiatus, Aleksandras Starkovas returns to the position of head coach of the Latvian national team, with which the Baltic country achieved its greatest successes in history.
A.Starkovas already coached Latvia from 2001 to 2004 and managed to lead them to the 2004 European Football Championship in Portugal. After the European championships, the coach left his position and worked for Moscow's "Spartak," which he left by mutual agreement in the spring of 2006. Since then, he worked as the sports director of the Riga-based "Skonto" club.
A.Starkovas will replace the dismissed Jurij Andrejev, whose supervised team had a very unsuccessful start in the qualification battles for the 2008 European Championship. The latest drop of patience for the Latvian football leaders was the defeat to Liechtenstein last month. In the F group of the qualifying tournament, Latvia has only 3 points after 4 matches and currently occupies the 5th place out of 7 teams.
"I needed time to think, as I am committed to 'Skonto.' Of course, I wanted to work as a coach because it is the best thing I know how to do. The Latvian national team is currently not in the best shape, but it is a challenge for me and I accept it," said A.Starkovas.
The first official coach match will be in Riga on June 2nd, when Latvia will face Spain in the qualifying matches.
The General Secretary of the Latvian Football Federation, Janis Mezeckis, did not hide his satisfaction with this return: "We needed innovations. How can we forget that he led the country to the European championships? We expect a lot from A.Starkovas. It will be difficult to change something in the middle of this tournament, but we hope that the new coach will improve many things."
