TIRANA, Jan. 10 – Albania’s defending champions Kukes have hired an experienced Austrian coach following their poor start this season as they trail leaders Skenderbeu by 12 points.
Peter Pacult, a former striker who has trained teams in Austria and Germany, Slovenia and Croatia top leagues joined the Albanian debut champions in the first days of January after the north-east Albania club sacked Serbian coach Mladen Milinković following two humiliating losses.
The 58-year-old former Rapid Wien and Leipzig coach has been training the team in Turkey where he surprised two Turkish top league teams, Kayserispor and Bursaspor, with 2-1 victories in preparatory friendlies ahead of the Superliga resumption on January 20 following the winter break.
“My target is to make Kukes play good football and achieve the expected results at the end of the season. We have another 20 golden games and the important thing is to achieve success with the help of the sporting director and the team. I like offensive football and will fight to apply it” Pacult told a press conference last week in Tirana.
Kukes have collected only 25 points in their first 16 games of this season, ranking fourth and trailing leaders Skenderbeu by 12 points.
The defending champions have made two reinforcement so far in the January transfer window, hiring Kosovo playmaker Donjet Shkodra from Skenderbeu and Georgian midfielder Irakli Dzaria from the Georgian championship.
The north-eastern based club with not much history in the top flight of Albanian football made history last year as they claimed their first-ever Superliga title in a season which saw the relegation of Tirana, the 24-times record Superliga champions.
Kukes also put an end to the six-year domination of Skenderbeu, the only Albanian club to have made it to the UEFA Europa League group stage, with two appearances in the 2015 and 2017 seasons.
