Albert Roca has served as an assistant to Frank Rijkaard for five seasons at Barcelona (2003-2008)
Bengaluru FC on Wednesday announced the appointment of Spain's Albert Roca as the club's new coach for a two-year tenure.
The 53-year-old Spaniard, who has a wealth of coaching experience at the highest level, will be with the Blues till the end of the 2017-18 season.
Roca has served as an assistant to Frank Rijkaard for five seasons at Barcelona (2003-2008) during which the Catalans won the Champions League once, the La Liga twice and the Spanish Super Cup twice before following the Dutchman in the same role to Turkish club Galatasaray (2009-2010) and finally the Saudi Arabian national team (2011-2013).
Roca's last job was as manager of the El Salvador national team where he was in charge for a year. As a player, Roca's most notable stints were with Real Zaragoza and CE Sabadell FC in the La Liga apart from shifts with a number of clubs in the second division.
"I'm very satisfied to have signed with Bengaluru FC. They are the champions of India, have fantastic supporters and most importantly, have a great support system and a management that is always hands on and wants to stay at the top," said Roca, a resident of Grannolers in Catalonia near Barcelona.
"I want to assure our supporters that we will always give it our best. I want the supporters to be happy about the way we play," said Roca.
Roca's first game in charge will be the AFC Cup quarterfinal against Singapore side Tampines Rovers in September - a game he reckons will be a tough challenge. "The AFC Cup quarterfinal is definitely going to be a big challenge but we will do our best to get a good result and make the semis," he said.
The Blues coach is expected to land in Bengaluru in the fourth week of July. Talking about roping in Roca, Parth Jindal, CEO, Bengaluru FC, said: "We are very excited to announce Albert Roca as the new coach of Bengaluru FC. He is, what I would call, a major signing at the club.
"Albert has been with some of the best clubs in Europe as well as spent time in developing countries because of which he will have a great sense of the challenges India would bring. We have had a very successful three years and Albert is only going to compound the efforts we have been making. He has also done some commendable work with young players in his career and that is absolutely in line with the philosophy of BFC where we are trying to develop players into stellar talent for the future," he added.
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