Venezuela name Sanvicente as national team coach
By Diego Ore
CARACAS (Reuters) - Noel "Chita" Sanvicente, Venezuela's most successful club coach, was handed the reins of the national team on Thursday with the aim of qualifying for the World Cup finals for the first time.
Sanvicente, who has won the Venezuelan league title seven times with two different clubs, is charged with steering his country to the 2018 tournament in Russia.
The 49-year-old replaces Cesar Farias, who quit eight months ago after narrowly failing to take Venezuela to this year's Brazil finals after the "Vinotino" achieved their best ever Copa America placing with fourth in Argentina in 2011.
"My goal is to work to be able to get to the World Cup ... I hope to be up to the task," Sanvicente said.
"I'm pleased to present to the country a man who has enough qualifications to take the reins of the national team," Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) president Rafael Esquivel told a news conference at a Caracas hotel, where Sanvicente was unveiled.
Sanvicente will make his debut in a friendly against South Korea on Sept. 5 during a tour of Asia. Venezuela play against Japan four days later.
His appointment quashed speculation that the FVF wanted a foreign coach after former Brazil boss Dunga and Argentina great Diego Maradona had been rumoured as candidates.
Sanvicente is one of the three main movers in lifting Venezuela's international profile over the last two decades after former national team coaches Richard Paez and Farias. They reached their highest ever FIFA ranking of 30 on Thursday, up 10 places from last month.
Sanvicente led Caracas FC to five league titles and one Venezuelan Cup victory between 2002 and 2010 and reigning champions Zamora to the last two.
Venezuela are the only country in the 10-nation South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) never to have reached the World Cup finals.
As they bid once again to break that threshold, they will also take part in the Centenary Copa America in the United States in 2016, which will be contested by the 10 CONMEBOL nations and six from the CONCACAF region.
As a player, Sanvicente won the league title five times, four with Maritimo and once with Minerven.
(Writing by Rex Gowar; Editing by Stephen Wood)
