Being Wales boss is 'best job in world' - Bellamy

New Wales head coach Craig Bellamy says he has landed the "best job in the world", having been appointed on a four-year deal.

The 44-year-old has succeeded Rob Page, and will lead the national team he won 78 caps for between 1998 and 2013.

Bellamy left his assistant manager post at Burnley to take the role with Wales, his first as a permanent head coach of a senior team.

"I feel like every job I do is at the biggest club, the best club in the world," said Bellamy.

"This now is the best job in the world, Wales are the best footballing nation in the world.

"That's how it feels to me."

A proud Welshman himself, Bellamy is renowned as a student of the game and is known to work around the clock to better himself.

As well as studying the game itself, the former Liverpool and Manchester City forward said he also prides himself on learning about the team or nation he is representing.

"I need to know everything about it, the history," said Bellamy.

"Being home obviously gives me a head start because I grew up here.

"I'm from here, I need to know what's gone on in Wales down the years and the history of Wales, how it has developed.

"That's important to me."

At his first press conference as Wales head coach Bellamy said he thought he had put his Welsh connection to one side, but realised it "was rooted in me and I didn’t know it was there".

Bellamy says he spoke to former Burnley head coach Vincent Kompany the morning of his Wales appointment, and the former Manchester City defender knew the move was inevitable if the Football Association of Wales came calling.

"I’ve had a lot of messages, more than I anticipated," said Bellamy.

"I spoke to Vincent for about an hour, and he said something interesting, he said: 'I knew this was the one job I could lose you to.'

"He’d never said that to me, but he felt in the time we worked together it was the role he knew he wouldn’t be able to talk me out of."

Since Bellamy retired from international duty in 2013, the Welsh national team has enjoyed its most successful era.

Under Chris Coleman, Wales reached the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championships before ending a 64-year wait to qualify for a World Cup.

Though they were knocked out in the group stages of the World Cup, and the last 16 of the 2020 European Championship, Wales is now a nation which expects to qualify for major tournaments.

That was not the case during Bellamy's playing days, with Wales narrowly missing out on qualification time and time again.

As well as the obvious impact of Gareth Bale, who Bellamy described as a "once-in-100-years player", the new Wales head coach also pointed to a change in crowds.

Bellamy experienced huge attendances at Principality Stadium, against teams such as Italy in 2002 and England in 2011.

But during the same period, Wales would frequently sell less than 15,000 tickets for games, leaving the national stadium feeling empty.

Now playing at Cardiff City Stadium, home games are always close to full capacity, and Bellamy says those crowds have played a huge part in their recent success.

"We’ve had some big games, especially qualifying games," said Bellamy.

"During those games you always get a sense of where the crowd is at, every game you get a certain period when you won’t be dominating.

"That period when your back is against the wall, that’s when you know you’ve got a crowd, because they see it as well.

"We can all go quiet or get edgy and on players’ backs, and as an opposition player you sense those moments, that’s when you can start challenging.

"I’ve felt over the last four or five years they have never allowed that to happen. They got louder because they’ve seen those moments.

"That’s why I believe we qualified for major tournaments, because the supporters read the room and understood the players needed them.

"They’ve played a huge part in it and I hope they know that as well."