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| Former US football team captain Thomas Dooley. Photo grabbed from Youtube. |
MANILA (UPDATE) – The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) has reportedly hired retired German-American football player Thomas Dooley as the new coach of the Philippine Azkals.
Dooley is a long-time member and former captain of the United States national football team.
"Official: Former US international and captain Thomas Dooley has been selected to be the new Azkals head coach," an announcement posted on the Azkals’ official Twitter account said.
The 52-year-old Dooley will be helping the national team prepare for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup in Maldives this May.
Azkals team manager Dan Palami said the German-American was one of the five coaches shortlisted for the job. He said as many as 12 were considered.
Palami is confident that Dooley will be able to take the Filipino squad to a whole new level.
“[It was a] very tough selection process, but quite confident that the selection of Thomas Dooley as Azkals coach will bring the team to another level,” said the team manager in his Twitter account.
Palami, however, said that the coach has yet to sign his contract when he arrives in Manila next week.
"Final negotiations re terms of contract lis still ongoing but will be finalized when he arrives next week and meet w/ PFF," he said.
Dooley assumed US citizenship in 1992 and became a regular for the US, representing the country in the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Dooley retired after a send-off match by the US in a friendly against Chile in 1999, collecting a total of 81 caps and 7 goals with the US national football team.
He will be taking over the post vacated by German coach Michael Weiss.