Eq Guinea look to a new era

Equatorial Guinea's new coach, the former Paraguayan international striker Carlos 'Lobo' (The Wolf) Diarte, says he is the man to usher in a new in the country's football.

However he is keeping his cards close to his chest about how he intends to get the team into shape for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finals that they will be hosting.

The widely-travelled Diarte, who was appointed on Friday at a press conference in the Spanish city of Valencia, has the brief of making sure their first appearance in the tournament does not turn into a fiasco.

"Equatorial Guinea is a young country in this sport and now needs to take big steps forward but I think I can do a good job," he said.

"I can start a new era for football in the country. What I need is the support of the sport's leaders in the country and the players.

Diarte will know, just by looking at the results, that he has a big task on his hands.

Equatorial Guinea have lost their last nine games since they got a 2-0 win over Sierra Leone in a World Cup qualifier, in June 2008.

They have steadily slipped down the rankings of football's world governing body, Fifa, in the last 15 months and now lie in 130th position after high of 64th in March last year.

Diarte replaces Vicente Engonga, who resigned in June after a protracted disagreement with the president of the country's football federation, Bonifacio Manga Obiang.

Obiang wanted Engonga to use players with Guinean roots from other countries who could be given fast track naturalisation.

But the former Spanish international wanted to work with local players and put more emphasis on grass-roots development in a country with a population of just 500,000.

However, in addition to plenty of Spanish-born players, Engonga did also scour the globe and called up players born in Brazil, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Diarte has coached eight club sides in Spain and Paraguay, but is yet to win a major national title.

In 1988 he has was briefly the coach of Valencia, where he has lived since 1987 and the city's famous eponymous club during the following year.

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