Amara Traore has been appointed new Senegal coach, the Senegalese Football Federation announced on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old former international has coached first division ASC Linguere de St-Louis since 2007, leading them to the title this season. The Senegalese federation said Traore's first priority is to qualify the team for the 2012 African Nations Cup and Olympic Games.

Ex-Terenga Lions' defender, Ferdinand Coly, has also been named "squad coordinator". Coly, who was a member of the famous 2002 World Cup squad, will act as a go-between linking the players, the coach and the federation. Traore stepped into the hot shoe, which was left vacant when Coach Lamine Ndiaye was sacked after failing to progress to the second group stage of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations.

The 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists finished third in Group 6 after being held to a 1-1 draw by Gambia in their final game, a match which resulted in a national holiday being called in Banjul, and rioting fans on the streets of Dakar, who vandalised the national stadium and the country's FA offices.