The All Nepal Football Association, on Thursday, revealed Arena as the successor of Matt Ross, who resigned in October last year with over five months left in his one-year contract.

Arena, 52, was born in Montreux, Switzerland, but holds an Italian citizenship as well. While details of Arena playing at a professional level are not available, he has spent over two decades as a professional coach/manager.

According to transfermarkt.com, a popular website for football transfers, market values, rumours and stats, Arena’s first professional role was with ASFA Yennenga, one of the top clubs in Burkina Faso, in 2003-2004.

Arena then returned to Switzerland and joined a local club US Collombey-Muraz in 2007.

Then back to Africa with AS Tonnerre de Bohicon in Benin (2008-2009), Arena worked with Morocco’s COD Meknes (2009), and then at IZK Khemisset (2009) for a brief time before returning to Meknes (2010).

It was his first time as a manager in Asia when he joined Singapore’s Etoile FC in 2011. But before going to another Asian club, UAE’s Al Orooba FC in 2013, Arena was back to Africa with Algeria’s CR Belouizdad for 2012-2013.

In 2014, Arena was in Oman with Fanja SC. He won the 2014 Oman Super Cup with Fanja. The Oman Super Cup was played between Al-Nahda, champions of the 2013-14 Oman Professional League, and Fanja, who qualified as the winners of the 2013-14 Sultan Qaboos Cup.

Arena then spent almost a decade in various roles—technical director, manager, and assistant manager—at over half a dozen clubs in China, the UAE, Switzerland, and Morocco, before his first stint as a national team coach.

The UEFA pro-license holder’s first national duty was with Laos, where he looked after the senior and U23 men’s teams in 2023. His latest role was as a manager with MAS Fes, a Moroccan club, until December 2024.

Arena has been in Nepal for almost a week and sighted in National League matches.

Arena signed the agreement with ANFA General Secretary Kiran Rai at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato, Lalitpur, on Thursday.

According to ANFA, Arena, whose first task will be Nepal’s friendly with Hong Kong at Dasharath Stadium on March 26, will be making public his plans and other aspects of the contract in a press conference on Friday afternoon.