Veteran Argentine coach Hector Cuper has been appointed manager of Syria, the national football federation announced on Thursday.

"Argentina's Hector Cuper, new coach of Syria. The new coach of the Syrian national team and his assistant staff will arrive in Syria in the coming days," the federation posted on Facebook, without specifying the duration of his contract.

Cuper, 67, a former centre back, has coached in Argentina, Europe and the Middle East.

In two seasons at Valencia he led the La Liga club to the 2000 and 2001 Champions League finals where they lost first to Real Madrid and then to Bayern Munich.

He has coached the national teams of Georgia (2008-09), Egypt (2015-18) who he took to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations final where they lost to Cameroon, Uzbekistan (2018-19) and, most recently, the Democratic Republic of Congo (2021-22).

Syria are 90th in the FIFA world rankings.