SPAIN: SOCCER/ FOOTBALL - Spanish champions Real Madrid appoint former German international Bernd Schuster as their new coach

Bernd Schuster is grateful for Fabio Capello legacy but says to be aiming for more. As the former German international is unveiled as new Real Madrid coach, he is confident that under his guidance the team will play a more entertaining brand of football. Spanish champions Real Madrid appointed former German international Bernd Schuster as their new coach on Monday (July 9). The 47-year-old, coach of Primera Liga side Getafe for the last two seasons, replaces Fabio Capello, who was sacked at the end of June after leading the club to their first league title in four years. "Looking at the clubs I've coached before this is a great step up for me. I had it in me to coach Real since I played here. I'm very comfortable in this position and I think I'm capable of doing a good job. I've always wanted to be in a place like this but in my view I think it has taken me too long to get here," Schuster said after signing a three-year contract with the nine-times European champions. Schuster, who has coached Primera Liga side Getafe for the last two seasons, is the eighth occupant of the Real Madrid bench in a little over four years. The former Real, Atletico and Barcelona midfielder has been set the task of emulating Capello's success but at the same time ensuring that the team plays the sort of crowd-pleasing, attacking football demanded by the club and its fans. The German confirmed that he had bought himself out of his contract with Getafe by paying a compensation fee of 480,000 euros, thus allowing him to make the switch. "I had to pay the buy-out clause but I've never had so many friends ring me up to help me pay. We'll have to see how I can settle up. Anyway, what's important is that all that it's behind now and I don't think it's worth talking about it anymore," Schuster told reporters. Schuster steered the modest, Madrid-based, Getafe to consecutive ninth-placed finishes in the Primera Liga and to a first final of the King's Cup, where they lost 1-0 to Sevilla. Getafe caused the upset of the season when they came back from a 5-2 first-leg loss against Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Cup to inflict a humiliating 4-0 defeat on the Catalans in the return. Prior to the Getafe job, Schuster had a brief spell in charge of Levante. Levante got off to a flying start but faded badly in the second half of the season and Schuster was fired four games from the end of a campaign that ended with relegation. His only other top-flight experience came with Ukraine side Shakhtar Donetsk between 2003-04. Once again his team got off to a good start but they hit problems towards the end of the season and he was fired when they fell behind arch-rivals Dynamo Kiev. But the former German international insisted he knew what to do with Real. He also said he was grateful to predecessor Fabio Capello for the legacy he left after leading the club to their first league title in four years. "He achieved something very important by winning the league title last season -and also what that trophy meant for the club. In any event, that victory helps me. If you don't win trophies it creates a lot of tension and so the fact that the club has won the league title has taken a weight off my shoulders. It's good for the club, for the players and it will make my job that much easier," Schuster said. Schuster also credited Capello, who took charge of the club a year ago, with restoring team spirit and instilling a winning mentality into a side that had not won a major trophy since 2003. Capello was sacked 11 days after steering Real to victory over arch-rivals Barcelona in the Spanish title race, with the president Ramon Calderon saying that the team's style of play under the Italian did not meet the standards demanded by the club and its fans.

ITN Source | July 10, 2007

Tags:. .aiming. .knew. .replaces. .confident. .fell