Engin Firat has been appointed as the new coach of Moldova and the boss has already set the target of gaining qualification to the World Cup in the future. The 49-year-old comes into the national team after predominantly being in charge of Iranian outfits over the course of his managerial career. After serving as the assistant manager with the various teams like Fenerbahce and Iranian national team, the 49-year-old started his first managerial experience with Sepahan in 2008. Since then, he has been in charge ofGostaresh FC and Saipa FC.
He takes over at the Moldova national team from Semen Altman, whose position only lasted four games as the interim manager. He was given the opportunity to steady the ship afterAlexandru Spiridon’s reign came to an end in July.Spiridon had been one of the longest serving managers for the team after being in charge for almost 2 years. He had overseen 15 games, which is the second-highest tally since 2014. Only Igor Dobrovolski has been in charge of more games (15) for Moldova during this period. Immediately,Firat claimed that he wants to give more still young players. There are a number of Moldavian national team players currently in Switzerland, Italy, and Russia. It is the task of the national team to provide them with a lot of experience before they take on Russia in a friendly match in March.
“The league is over in Moldova. Since these matches are a little more preparation period, I give importance to young players. I especially called many players from the hopeful national team. I didn’t call kids playing in Russia, Italy, Switzerland. I will give these young people a little more attention to building the team of the future. At this stage there is an older generation of Moldovan football. I need to discover young players,” said Firat.