Guardiola heading to Moscow
Baku, July 6 (AZERTAC). The man who made Barcelona the best football team on the planet, Josep Guardiola, is close to becoming the new coach of the Russian national football squad.
Sport-Express daily claims the plane carrying Guardiola will land in Moscow on Friday.
According to one of the paper's sources, former RFU head Sergay Fursenko signed a contract with the Spanish coach before retiring last week, while there’s also information that the details of a future deal are only to be discussed in the Russian capital.
Spartak Moscow’s owner, Leonid Fedun, advocated the invitation of the former Baca manager to the national team, saying: “The next coach has to be Pep Guardiola. I’m ready to finance his deal.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Football Union’s press-service, Nikolay Komarov, hurried to deny all his organization’s contacts with Guardiola or any other foreign coach.
"We have Guardiola arriving tomorrow, Jose Mourinho - the day after tomorrow and Sir Alex Ferguson on Monday, I wonder what name will appear in the media next,” he told RIA-Novosti news agency. “Seriously, the previous leadership of the RFU had no contact with potential candidates for the position of the Russian national team head coach. As soon as we know his name, all information will appear on the Union’s official website.”
Guardiola’s agent, Jose Maria Orobitg, was also surprised to learn that his client in expected in the Russian capital.
"Josep hasn’t received any proposals from the RFU,” he told Izvestia newspaper. “I don’t know where such information came from. It’s out of the question. Guardiola is now with his family in New York and intends to stay in the US for another year and only then get back to work."
The whole Guardiola thing may be just hoax as the papers also expected former England’s boss, Fabio Capello, to come Moscow for talks on Thursday, but he never arrived in Russia.
RT is currently trying to get in touch with Fedun to receive comments on the story.
Meanwhile, Spanish AS newspaper reported that it’s not only Russia, but Serie A giants, AC Milan, who are currently negotiating a deal with Guardiola.
During his four-year stay at Barcelona, Josep Guardiola has won an impressive 14 trophies, including three Spanish championships and lifted the Champions League twice.
The 41-year-old announced quits from the club this May after the Catalans missed out on both the La Liga and Champions League titles.
Russia are in search of a new coach after Dick Advocaat decided not to prolong his deal with the RFU, leaving the national team right after their failure in the Euro 2012 group stages.
Italy’s Fabio Capello, Zenit coach Luciano Spaletti as well as local specialists Valery Gazzaev and Aleksandr Borodyuk are also linked with the Russian job.
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