Soccer-Western Sydney hand Rudan full-time coaching role

(Reuters) - Western Sydney Wanderers have appointed Mark Rudan as their full-time head coach until the end of the 2023-24 season, the club announced on Friday.

Rudan had taken over in a caretaker capacity following the sacking of Carl Robinson last month and has now been handed a contract that will him take to the end of the current season and through the next two A-League campaigns.

"I am extremely proud and honoured to take this club forward into a new era, and I am under no illusion how big a job this is going to be," said Rudan, who has won two of his six games in charge to date.

"We need to build a team, together, that is representative of the fans.

"What the fans do to make this club special doesn't go unnoticed. I want to give them something that when they turn up they are proud of the team that plays for them."

Wanderers, who in 2014 became the first club from Australia to win the Asian Champions League, were expected to challenge for the A-League title this season but have struggled so far.

The club are currently 10th in the 12-team league with 12 points from their first 13 games and are 17 points adrift of leaders Melbourne City.

Wanderers still retain hopes of securing a place in the six-team end-of-season championship playoffs, however, with Rudan's team only six points behind sixth-placed Sydney FC.

(Reporting by Michael Church in Hong Kong, Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)