Ratchaburi Mitr Phol yesterday unveiled former Germany defender Christian Ziege as the new coach of the Thai League 1 club.
New Ratchaburi coach Christian Ziege.
Team manager Tanawat Nitikarnchana told a news conference at Ratchaburi Mitr Phol Stadium that the former Bayern Munich star has signed a one-year contract with the club.
Ziege said: "To come here in Ratchaburi is what I wanted. In Europe, there are many coaches who have no work and I am very happy to come and work with Ratchaburi.
"Actually, there is not much difference between the Thai and European players, but with world-class players like Cristiano Ronaldo, when training, you don't have to tell them what to do as they can do things on their own."
He added: "It is difficult to tell now of how to help the team finish in which position, but I will try to help them win, that's match by match.
"When I was a player, I always liked playing as the visiting team because it was challenging. Everything favoured the host team so a win was always a great result for the away team.
"About the style of play, I will make the team play with more aggression and keep on attacking, but to achieve that the players would have to be very fit physically."
Tanawat said: "Many coaches applied for the job at our club and Christian Ziege was one of them. We did not think that he would be interested in our team but things worked out.
"We hope he will help us finish better than the sixth place we got in last year's league."
Ziege has in the past coached Germany's U18 and U19 squads.
Meanwhile, Chonburi have signed Goran Barjaktarevic as their new coach.
Barjaktarevic, a former Yugoslavia player, was in charge of the U19 side of Eintracht Braunschweig, a Bundesliga 2 club. He replaces Therdsak Chaiman, who quit at the end of 2017 season.
