Hard workers attract first-class coach Roberto Landi to coaching in Australia Jon McKain at Adelaide United training. ADELAIDE United's Jon McKain has convinced Italian coach Roberto Landi that the Reds vacancy is tailor-made for him. Landi gave McKain and fellow Australian players Michael Thwaite, Wayne Shroj and Ryan Griffiths 5-star report cards. He said the four Australians had helped him claim the coach of the year prize while in charge of Romanian club National Bucharest. National reached UEFA qualification under the flamboyant Italian, who says McKain's work ethic had left a lasting impression. Landi owns a UEFA Pro Licence coaching badge and speaks fluent English. "I'm very interested in coaching Adelaide United because I've had the fortune of coaching four Australians in Romania," Landi told the Sunday Mail from Rimini, Italy. To have Jon McKain playing in Adelaide is also an advantage. He's played under me for a couple of years in Romania and he knows how I work. He knows my philosophies and he knows my good points and he'd know my defects. Jon McKain, Thwaite, Shroj and Griffiths - I was lucky to coach those men and they've always talked to me in high regard about the Australian game. I still remain in contact with those players and when Alessandro Del Piero (Sydney FC) arrived in Australia the market in Italy became very interested in the A-League. I've seen that the level has really been raised and the structure of the league and its clubs has grown. With my experience, I really feel I have a lot to offer Adelaide United. Landi, 57, has coached in nine nations since hanging up his goalkeeping gloves after a playing career that started with Italy's Piacenza before he signed for Modena, Ravenna and Siena. "I have been in contact with Adelaide United's football director Michael Petrillo," said Landi, who was the US goalkeeper coach for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. In these past few days we've talked a couple of times and I talked to him last when he was in Hong Kong. Aside from stints in the US and South Africa, Landi has also coached club sides in Italy, Scotland, Romania, Hungary and Belgium and has taken on national team jobs with Georgia, Lithuania and Qatar. Landi's last coaching role was with the Liberian national team where he helped the African nation climb 40 FIFA ranking positions.