The bittersweet relationship between the Bangladesh Football Federation and Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif came to a formal ending with the introduction of Bangladesh’s new coach Fabio Lopez yesterday. The 42-year old Italian faced the media, in a BFF arranged press conference, where he expressed his desire to uplift the image of the Red and Green with everyone’s assistance.
“I’m very thankful to the president, to all the members in the Bangladesh Football Federation because they gave me a very big responsibility. I’m now the head coach of this country and I will represent Bangladesh team anywhere in the world,” were Lopez’s first words yesterday.
The former Azzurri goalkeeper believes the media is a key component in growing and said, “I will try to do my best and hope the media to be a part of my job. I think media have a big goal with us, they must help us. I like to talk about constrictive critics. I like to work with and listen from the media. I think together we will reach something good. It is important to be united while working.”
Football is at its peak as far as Bangladesh are concerned, but heavy defeats recently, although they came against superior opponents, in the World Cup qualifiers brought De Kruif’s performance under the scanner as critics held the Dutch responsible for such poor performances.
Lopez, whose assistants will arrive on Sunday, said, “My opinion only is to work, to improve we must work a lot. I watched last three-four games but I didn’t like things because that work was not mine. What I saw, the last two matches they played very bad tactically. So, I will try to improve this ground with my technical staffs who will come soon. And I think that we must bring the winning mentality little bit. I don’t see winning mentality in this team, I saw the faces of the players were little bit sad every time they conceded a goal. Ok, we conceded, but we must score two goals.”
De Kruif took charge of Bangladesh football in July 2013 and in the last two years he has been the center of various arguments and dramas involving his job. The coach, who spoke highly of professionalism, showed unprofessionalism quite often and spoke against the BFF on several occasions. De Kruif, who was sacked in October last year before being reappointed as temporary head coach in January, left Dhaka yesterday morning. Lopez will be in charge of the national camp that will resume from Sunday.