May 18 (Reuters) - Italian Andrea Maldera has been appointed Ukraine's head coach, Ukrainian Football Association (UAF) President Andriy Shevchenko said on Monday.
The 55-year-old will be the first foreign coach of Ukraine's national team following Serhiy Rebrov's exit in April after their failure to qualify for the World Cup.
"Andrea Maldera is an Italian with a Ukrainian soul. He worked with our national team for five years. And after that he continued to progress, working in top teams," Shevchenko told reporters.
"Andrea has a background of working with great coaches, clubs, and achieved results.
"It is important that Maldera now has ambitions as a head coach. The most important thing is that he understands how to work with the national team."
Maldera served as a technical coach until 2021 under Shevchenko during his tenure as manager of the Ukraine team.
After ending his contract with the UAF, he also worked with Roberto De Zerbi as an assistant at Brighton & Hove Albion and at Olympique de Marseille in Ligue 1.
(Reporting by Paras J. Haji in BengaluruEditing by Toby Davis)
