Tirana: Former Real Madrid and AC Milan star Christian Panucci was unveiled as coach of Albania on Wednesday, and promptly set a target of qualifying for Euro 2020.
Panucci was most recently assistant coach of Russia under his long-time mentor Fabio Capello, but the 44-year-old is better known as winner of the Champions League as a right back with Milan and Madrid in 1994 and 1998.
“My chief objective is to qualify Albania for the Euro 2020,” Panucci told a press conference.
Albania are currently third in their group in the qualifying competition for the Russian World Cup in 2018, trailing Spain and Italy by seven points with four games to go.
“The World Cup is almost impossible,” he admitted. “But we’ll give our very best in the four remaining matches.”
Panucci, who also enjoyed eight seasons with Roma and brief spells at Chelsea, Monaco and Inter, takes over from another Italian Gianni de Biasi, who took Albania to France for the finals of Euro 2016.
