Former Bechem United coach, Vincenzo Alberto Annese has taken up the national team job of Belize.
Annese replaces Poland national Richard Orlowski who was in charge of the Central American nation’s senior team from 2016 to 2018.
The Italian will be in charge till June 2023 after agreeing to an initial one-year deal. He’s charged to ensure the Belize team advances to a second appearance at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Annese, 34, has managed at a number of club sides and will be in charge of his first national team which he says is a new challenge for him and seeks to turn things around for the 169th Fifa-ranked football nation.
“It’s another chance for me to improve. I had other opportunities to coach other clubs in Indonesia with bigger salaries but I chose Belize.
“National team job is different from club so that attracted me and Belize has a number of future talents and I’m looking at having the best quality system for the players.
“Belize struggle to qualify for the Gold Cup. We want to compete in the CONCACAF so we have to improve more and more and make sure we make good marketing stream so that some players from here can compete at the highest level,” Annese told www.footy-ghana.com.
Belize’s only appearance in the CONCACAF Gold Cup has been the 2013 edition where they were eliminated in the group phase of the tournament. They lost all three group games against USA, Costa Rica and Cuba, scored a goal and conceded 11.
