Italian legend Walter Zenga submits his application form to manage the Super Eagles

FORMER Italian goalkeeper Walter Zenga has declared his interest in managing the Super Eagles submitting his application to coach the team to the secretariat of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

A former manager of Serie A side Cagliari, Mr Zenga, who was born on April 28, 1960, was a long-time goalkeeper for Inter Milan and the Italian national team.  During his playing career, Zenga was part of the Italian squad that finished fourth at the 1986 Olympics in Los Angeles and was the starting goalkeeper for the Italian team that finished third in the 1990 World Cup.

His first managerial job was as player-manager of New England Revolution. He had a short stint with Milanese Serie D team Brera Calcio, before moving  to Romania in 2002, where he managed Naţional București and then Steaua București where he won the domestic title and reached the Round of 16 of the 2004/05 Uefa Cup after eliminating defending champions Valencia.

Then in the summer of 2005,  Zenga joined Red Star Belgrade, leading the Serbo-Montenegrin team to a double league and national cup. In the summer of 2006, Zenga was appointed as the coach of Turkish Süper Lig side Gaziantepspor but he resigned in January 2007 in order to accept an offer from United Arab Emirates club Al-Ain.

In  September 2007, Zenga was announced as the new manager of  Dinamo București, replacing Mircea Rednic.  Other teams he handled included Catania in April 2008, whom he saved them from relegation to Serie B and Palermo in 2009.

On 11 May 2010, he was announced new head coach of Saudi Professional League club Al-Nassr and later moved to Al Nasr SC in 2011 in the UAE Pro-League. When he returned to Italy in 2015, Zenga was appointed head coach at Serie A side Sampdoria for the 2015/16 season and in 2016, he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers.

On 8 December 2017, Zenga was appointed Crotone manager and  took over at Cagliari in March 2020. A three-time winner of the IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper Award, Zenga is regarded  as one of the best keepers of all time.