KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — The Football Association of Selangor (FAS) today announced that Karsten Neitzel has been appointed as the new head coach of the Red Giants ahead of the Malaysia League (M-League) 2021 campaign.

The 52-year-old German, who previously played for Freiburg in the Bundesliga, arrived here in the middle of last month and completed the quarantine process set by the Ministry of Health (KKM) early last week.

In a statement, Selangor technical director Michael Feichtenbeiner said Neitzel is the right man to lead Selangor to a higher level based on his 10 years of coaching experience, especially in managing Germany’s Bochum VFL, SV Elversberg as well as leading Holstein Kiel into the second division of the German league.

"First is, I know him (Karsten) well because he used to be my player. He was a very good midfielder and played in my team in the second division before playing in the Bundesliga later. He was a very powerful player.

"He has a good attitude; he works hard and always wanted to prove himself in Asia. So I think he will be very motivated to coach in Malaysia for Selangor,” he said.

Neitzel was previously manager of German Division 4 club RW Essen before holding the position of advisor to SW Essen and also served as an assistant head coach in the Japanese League (JLeague) with the Urawa Reds.

Feichtenbeiner added that Karsten is also capable of bringing up new talents to play for the Selangor main squad.

"It’s important to our project to produce our own players to play in the Super League. So we need a head coach who is open to using young players. Sometimes, it’s not easy to play young boys because they tend to make mistakes, but Karsten is a brave coach. If he sees some qualities and abilities in the young boys, he will give them a chance,” he said.

Meanwhile, Neitzel acknowledged that it was important to regain the confidence of the Red Giants fans.

"It’s good to convince people around the club via winning games, for sure. In the last few weeks, the team started to give that impression in a good way. I have good feelings (with the teams). I have seen a lot of games for the first team and I think we have a team with good quality,” he said. — Bernama