"Fabio Capello has had so much success as a club
manager, and I think he'll be a success with us," declared
Owen Hargreaves in a recent
FIFA.com exclusive interview. The England
international is hardly alone in holding this opinion, after 65.04%
of users responding to our latest poll indicated their agreement
with the Manchester United midfielder. We asked you to name the man
most likely to succeed from five recently-hired national coaches,
with the 61-year-old Italian finishing out in front by a
significant margin.
Capello, successor to Steve McClaren following England's
distressing failure to qualify for this summer's UEFA EURO
2008, landed ahead of Argentine maestro Marcelo Bielsa. The
52-year-old, at the Chile helm since summer 2007, polled a total of
14.24%.
Both Capello and Bielsa will be expected to deliver places at
the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Capello's reign as
England coach opened promisingly enough as his new charges returned
to winning ways with a 2-1 friendly victory over Switzerland at
Wembley in early February, but Chile appear to face a much more
challenging task. Four matches into the South American qualifying
campaign, the Chileans lie a lowly seventh in the standings on just
four points.
Elsewhere in our poll, new Scotland chief George Burley and
Australia coach Pim Verbeek secured third and fourth places with
totals of 7.17% and 7.04% respectively. Following the Scots'
brave but ultimately futile tilt at UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying,
Burley will feel his side have a decent shout of a berth in South
Africa despite a stiff qualifying group comprising the Netherlands,
Norway, FYR Macedonia and Iceland. Dutch boss Verbeek, who took the
helm Down Under last December, enjoyed the perfect start with his
new charges, as Australia's first Asia zone FIFA World Cup
qualifier ended in a comfortable 3-0 win over Qatar.
The result was one Jorge Fossati would rather forget. The
Uruguayan, fifth in our survey with 4.28% of the votes, took over
in Qatar last summer. "At the moment, I'm tackling the
huge challenge of realising Qatar's dream of a place at the
World Cup," the 57-year-old declared in a
FIFA.com exclusive interview.
Join in and cast your vote the next time
FIFA.com sets out to uncover the latest opinions
and trends! We're asking for your verdict on a string of shock
results in the UEFA Champions League.
Users back Capello for glory
(FIFA.com) Thursday 6 March 2008
