VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria named Franco Foda, coach of top flight side Sturm Graz, as their new national team coach on Monday. The 51-year-old German will replace Swiss Marcel Koller who will leave the job when his contract expires at the end of the year, having failed in his bid to qualify them for the 2018 World Cup.
The Austrian Football Federation (OeFB) said in a statement that Foda's contract will run until Euro 2020 if they qualify, or the end of 2019 if they do not. Foda led Sturm to the Austrian league title in 2011 during his second stint at the club which ran from 2006 to 2012. He was in charge of Kaiserslautern in the German second division for the 2012-13 season but left halfway through a two-year contract, then returned to Graz the following year to start his third stint.
A former defender, he played for several German clubs before ending his career with Sturm Graz in 2001. He won two caps for West Germany, both in 1987.Austria, 39th in the FIFA world rankings, last qualified for the World Cup in 1998.
(Reporting by Brian Homewood in Bern, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
