Football
9y

Walter Zenga aims to keep Sampdoria in top half of table

#INSERT type:image caption:Walter Zenga hopes to keep Sampdoria in the top half of the Serie A table. END#

Walter Zenga made his return to Italian football on Friday as he was presented as the new coach of Sampdoria on a one-year contract, although he is certain his time in Genoa will last much longer than that.

Since losing his job with Palermo in 2010, the 55-year-old has coached in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all the time waiting for Samp's call to arrive.

"I've had some big offers in the past, but I chose a different path," Zenga said at a news conference. "Now, after five years away, it was time to return. It was my desire to return to where I started, and that is why I am here."

Zenga's playing career actually began with Inter Milan, with whom he spent 16 years before playing two seasons with the Blucerchiati. The call from Genoa was nevertheless the one he was waiting for, and one he says he is more than ready for.

"I believe in myself strongly, I don't hold any fear," he said. "I had my rucksack on my back, travelling around the world, racking up more than 400 games on the bench around the world. I've built myself.

"Now was the time to come back. I was fortunate to get to know this president, and now it's up to me. I will work with great strength and great optimism. I always see the glass half full. I'm a guy who always sees the solution."

With that level of optimism, it was inevitable he would be asked why he had only signed a one-year contract.

"This is an arrival point for me," he said. "It doesn't mean I'm using this as a springboard, and that has got to be clear to everybody who is part of Sampdoria. I told this to the president -- that I would not want to be a burden on anybody; I was not looking for a big contract. If I do well, and believe me it will be like this, then it will be automatic that it extends."

Doing well would be getting one point more than Zenga's good friend Sinisa Mihajlovic, who guided Samp into the Europa League last season. If he succeeds, then he is sure the first compliments will arrive from the Serbian.

"If we get one point more than him, then he'll be happy," Zenga said. "Because that's the way he is. Our aim is to stay in the top half of the table, and try to get one point more than last year."

That drew a grin from the club's president Massimo Ferrero, and a warning to his newest recruit.

"You know that these guys can't wait to massacre us," he said, referring to the media. "Well the history of Sampdoria was written by [Vujadin] Boskov and Ferrero. Enough said."

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