Swiss job last assignment for Hitzfeld

Outgoing Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said on Monday he expected his next coaching assignment with the Swiss national team would be his last.

The 59-year-old trainer, who was presented to the Swiss media in Zurich two weeks after signing a two-year contract with the national football association, acknowledged however that he had entertained similar thoughts in the past.

"In 2004 when I first left Bayern I thought that I would never coach a club again, and then I was tempted back there," he said.

"Even then I said I would be back to help out for just six months and it turned into a year and a half. I have now signed a two-year contract with the Swiss FA which I expect will be my last coaching position.

"But you can never say for sure and if things work out well and I'm still having fun then there could always be an extension to four or even six years."

Hitzfeld has won 16 major titles with Swiss and German clubs including Champions League honours with Bayern and Borussia Dortmund.

He told reporters that emotion had played a strong part in his decision to coach the national team of the country he described as his "second home".

"I came here as a boy with my father to watch Switzerland [Images] games," said Hitzfeld who was born in the German town of Loerrach, just a few kilometres from the Swiss border.

"I'm not someone who just looks at sport as an ice cold professional. It's emotional too and that also played a part when I decided to leave Bayern and think about my future."

The Swiss football association confirmed that assistant coach Michel Pont would stay on to work with Hitzfeld when current head coach Koebi Kuhn retires after the Euro 2008 [Images] finals being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria in June.

Hitzfeld will be allowed to continue his work as an analyst for private German television station Premiere, although he insisted on Monday that he saw the Switzerland job as a full-time position.

"I saw reports speculating that I was taking on this job to prepare myself for retirement, but I can completely reject that claim," he said.

"When I take on a job I always give it 100 percent. I identify fully with every job and to be the trainer of a whole country makes this one even more special."

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