体坛英语新闻：Schalke sack Jens Keller to appoint Roberto Di Matteo

BERLIN, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Schalke part company with coach Jens Keller to appoint former Chelsea coach Roberto Di Matteo, the "Royal Blues" confirmed in a statement on Tuesday.

Schalke have released Jens Keller, as well as assistant Peter Hermann and goalkeeper coach Holger Gehrke, after poor performances with immediate effect. Keller took the helm in December 2012 but two victories out of ten games overall sealed the deal on the dismissal.

"We lacked in consistency to achieve our sportive goals. Therefore we decided to take this action," sporting manager Horst Heldt said in an official statement.

Schalke won just twice in the Bundesliga, slumping onto 11th place of the standings. Besides that, they crashed out of the German Cup at the first round and wait for their first win, after two games, in UEFA Champions League' s group G.

The dismissal of Jens Keller came out of the blue as sporting manager Horst Heldt got behind Keller following the 2-1 loss to Hoffenheim on Saturday in the Bundesliga.

However, former Chelsea coach Roberto Di Matteo, who lifted the Champions League title in May 2012 following a 4-3 win on penalties against Bayern Munich, replaces Jens Keller by putting pen to paper on deal until June 2017.

"We are firmly convinced that Roberto Di Matteo can stabilize the team and manage to achieve our goals in the Bundesliga and Champions League," Heldt said.

Nevertheless, since Di Matteo' s dismissal by Chelsea in November 2012 he hasn' t coached any club.