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    ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Ivory Coast have named former German international Uli Stielike as head coach of the West African country's senior national squad. The country's governing football body said Stielike would replace Henri Michel, the former French international and French national team coach, who led the Elephants to their first ever World Cup appearance earlier this year. Stielike was due to arrive in Abidjan Thursday afternoon to sign his contract. He will lead the team in their first qualifying match for the 2008 African Nations Cup against Gabon on October 8. As a player in the 1970s and 1980s, the former defender played for German side Borussia Moenchengladbach before moving to Real Madrid in Spain. He finished his career as a player with Swiss team, Neuchatel Xamax. He played 42 games for Germany and took part in the 1982 World Cup final in which Germany lost 3-1 to Italy. Stielike later coached the Swiss national team. Ivory Coast football federation president Jacques Anouma said that he had been hampered in his selection of a new coach by limited financial resources and the country's current socio-political problems. Another German, Jurgen Kohler, was reported to have turned down the Ivory Coast job due to fears over political instability in the country, which has been divided into a rebel-held north and government controlled south since civil war broke out in late 2002. |
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Stielike playerd in the 1982 World Cup final when Germany lost to Italy.
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