VALENCIA - New Levante coach Giovanni De Biasi revealed he turned down other offers from around Europe in order to take up the chance of managing in the Primera Liga.
The former Torino boss was presented by Levante on Wednesday as the replacement for Abel Resino, who was sacked following Sunday's 3-0 defeat at Real Zaragoza.
The Zaragoza loss left the Valencia-based club bottom of the standings with just one point from their opening seven games, but that did not scare off Italian De Biasi whose desire to coach in La Liga led him to shun all other advances.
"The Spanish league is the vanguard of Europe and for an Italian coach it is an important experience and I am very motivated," said De Biasi.
Even though there are only seven rounds of matches gone, Levante are already five points adrift of 17th place and safety, and with an upcoming fixture list that pits them against Sevilla, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal in their next three games.
De Biasi is looking forward to the challenge though, and believes there is enough talent in the Levante squad for them to get out of trouble.
"The team is good and the players have the quality to leave this situation. We all have to pull together and give 110%," he said in remarks reported by Marca.
The 51-year-old Di Biasi, who took charge of his first Levante training session on Wednesday morning before being presented in the afternoon, was previously in charge of Italian clubs such as Modena, Brescia and most recently, Torino.
Di Biasi had got Torino promoted into Serie A in 2006 but was sacked in September of that year, just days before the start of the new top-flight season.
However, he then made a dramatic return to Torino in February of this year following the departure of his replacement coach Alberto Zaccheroni, and helped save them from relegation before once again leaving at the end of last season.
Di Biasi has spent many years coaching in Italy, but he is confident he can succeed in Spain, saying: "I believe that I know the Spanish league and I only hope to have the capacity to be able to transmit my ideas to the team."
