The 34-year-old manager was unveiled two weeks ago, having penned a one-year contract with the Football Federation of Beliz (FFB).

Annese was among more than 100 coaches to have applied for the job, but he got the appointment due to his vision, experience and affordable cost, the FFB said.

“I accepted to become coach here because there’s a good talent hub but not many from Europe often come to coach here. There’s been only one Polish coach. Although it’s one of the small countries in Central America, it has good potential,” the young Italian coach told Pulse Ghana in an exclusive interview.

Annese’s latest job is a tough one, as Beliz are not known to be one of the best performing teams on the continent.

The Jaguars have qualified for just one major tournament in their history, which was the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Recently, Beliz once again failed in the Nations League/Gold Cup qualifying after losing to Guyana and Montserrat.

However, the country will have the opportunity to play in League B of the CONCACAF Nations League which begins in September, and the 2022 World Cup qualifying which begins next year.

Annese is aware of the task at hand and hopes to use his international experience to lead the Beliz national team to success.

Vincenzo Alberto Annese begins new challenge as coach of Beliz



“I believe Beliz can conquer CONCACAF. I hold international experience and I hope I can improve the results of the team,” the former Bechem United coach said.

“In September we start the qualification and we’ve started work already. We will be going to play some games in Honduras and also we’ll be playing some friendly games at home here in Beliz.”

The young Italian has so far had managerial stints in Africa, Europe, Asia and now Central America.

And he hopes to change the football history of Beliz, who until now have achieved very little success in the sport.

“I’m very concentrated on the Beliz national team. It’s like the country doesn’t have any historical stories in football so hopefully I can change that,” he effuses.

Annese is also determined to “change the system” of Belizean football by promoting talented, young players into the national team.

According to him, there’ll be opportunities for local-based players too, in a bid to improve the standards of the Beliz premier division.

“The national team of Beliz has players who play both locally and internationally. Some play in Malaysia, but most of them play in the local league. So we will try to improve the players and the local premier division too. This is very important.

“We have a new generation of players in this team. We’ll try to improve the football with more youth players. We want more young players to replace the old ones who are reaching the end of their careers,” he added.

Despite being just 34, Beliz is the 10th team that Annese has managed since starting in coaching career in 2010.

source;Pulse Ghana