No sooner was 63-year-old Claudio Ranieri sacked from his position as head of the national Greek football team that 75-year-old Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni stated that he has always “dreamed” of working with Greece. “It would be an honor to be coach of the Greek national side, I have always dreamed of working in this country,” he said. “The climate and the sea are fantastic and the standard of football is growing. I already know many of the international players and I am confident that Greece have the potential to qualify for European championships.”

He refered to Greece’s 1-0 home defeat to the Faroe Islands, ranked 187 of 209, that was the last straw that lead to the sacking of Mr. Ranieri. “I saw the Faroe islands game and really couldn’t believe it,” he said. “However, in football these things can happen even to the best of us.”

Greece has already named youth coach Kostas Tsanas as interim coach of the senior team but Mr. Trapattoni claims that he had been contacted by Greece’s football federation (EPO). There is still no official announcement for Mr. Ranieri’s suspension as both sides are working on a financial settlement after the breaking of his 1.6 million contract.

Mr. Ranieri will be in Greece for the friendly match with Serbia on the isle of Crete this evening.

On his part, Mr. Trapattoni has been out of work since stepping down as coach of Republic of Ireland, but he says he can’t live without coaching. “I still have a fire burning within me,” said the impressive coach whose career started at AC Milan 40 years ago. Since then he has sat on the bench at Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Cagliari, Fiorentina, Benfica, Stuttgart and Salzburg.