TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has chosen Portugal's Artur Jorge as the new coach to revive the fortunes of its beleaguered national football team, the student ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting an informed source.
"Artur Jorge has been chosen as the new head of the Iranian national football team," the source told the agency.
"His assistant and co-coach will be Mansour Ebrahimzadeh," it said, adding that Ebrahimzadeh would announce a 50-member national squad in the next few days.
Jorge played for top Lisbon side Benfica as well as the Portuguese national team. Moving into management in the 1980s, he enjoyed great success at FC Porto and then went on to coach sides including Paris St Germain and CSKA Moscow.
Known as "King Artur" by his fans, Jorge has also coached the Portuguese, Cameroon and Swiss national sides.
If the news is confirmed, he faces a tough challenge in resurrecting the fortunes of the national side which was bundled out of the 2006 World Cup in the first round and has shown indifferent form since.
The selection also comes during a tumultuous period in Iranian football, which has seen FIFA warn Tehran over government interference in the game.
In a bid to placate the world football authority, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pulled the conservative candidate he was promoting to be the new head of the Iranian football federation.
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