Augusto “Gus” Poyet, the former English Premier League midfielder and Uruguay international has been bestowed the “thorny” challenge of leading Greece’s national team, with his first task being to qualify for EURO 2024.

Hellenic soil is not at all foreign to the Uruguayan as he had a stint with AEK, although it did not last long (October 2015-April 2016).

Greece expects the new manager to get the team performing well in the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League which begins in June, though he will be mostly judged on the results in the qualifiers for the 2024 European Championships starting in March 2023.

The 54-yr-old Uruguayan replaces former coach John van’t Schip who resigned from his post after the side failed to reach this year’s World Cup, finishing third in their group.

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He has signed on with the national side until December 2023 with an option to extend an additional 12 months pending the team’s performance.

Speaking to Uruguayan media, Poyet said that prior to “saying yes to Greece” he spoke to his compatriot coach Sergio Markarian, who had considerable success in Greece, especially with Panathinaikos, but not so much with the “blue-whites” whom he managed for a few months.

“I spent seven months with AEK. It was one of the places where I tried my best. There was always a special relation with Greece. I am attached to the country. Life brought me here,” Poyet said, adding that “my aim is to live permanently in Greece and follow closely the Greek league.”

Poyet, apart from “Enosi”, has had coaching terms in England (Sunderland and Brighton), Spain (Real Betis), China (Shanghai Shenhua) and Chile (Universidad Catolica) and he will use that accumulated experience to help Greece achieve its targets.

“My main goal is EURO 2024. They asked me firstly to lead the team to the Nations League. It is a tournament that commenced in the last few years. We (Greece) are on the third level and we will compete with rivals that supposedly are on the same level as us,” said Poyet.

“We will aim for the first spot in our group and, from then on, to reach the finals of the European Championships.”

Greece’s new manager was a talented midfielder in his own right, most notably playing for Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and River Plate, as well as featuring 26 times for the Uruguayan national team.