Karl Izzo (picture) will be the new waterpolo national team coach, the ASA announced yesterday after a deal was reached with the San Ġiljan ASC mentor for the next two years.

Five men were in the running for the post after the term of former coach Sergio Afric came to a close in summer.

Afric, of Croatia, had been in charge of the national team since 2008. He was again in contention for the job along with Italian Marco Risso and local trio Izzo, Joe Caruana Dingli and Anthony Farrugia.

The ASA appointed a com-mittee in October to analyse all five applications submitted before making their recom-mendations to the ASA.

This week, they concluded negotiations with Izzo and a two-year deal was agreed upon even though a contract still has to be signed, the ASA said.

Last summer, Izzo, who also played waterpolo at the top level, led San Ġiljan to the semi-final play-offs. He was assistant to Afric for the last two years and also coached the national U-17 side.

Meanwhile, the ASA said the national team will commence training in January.

In 2013, Malta will be participating in three major qualification tournaments for the 2014 European Champion-ships.

These tournaments will be played in April, July and November.