The widely-travelled Welshman - who has held positions in his home country as well as France, Turkey, Portugal and Spain - has now won his first Italian appointment.

Toshack had been strongly linked with the vacancy left by Mick McCarthy at the Republic of Ireland.

Now his move to Catania would appear to leave the way open for the likes of John Aldridge, Joe Kinnear and new bookies' favourite Bryan Robson to battle it out for the right to succeed Mick McCarthy.

Catania sacked their previous coach Maurizio Pellegrino after their 2-0 home defeat by Napoli on Tuesday.

They are currently fourth-bottom in the second division of Italian football.

Toshack's reputation is very high throughout Europe after stints in charge of Real Madrid, Sporting Lisbon, Real Sociedad, Deportivo La Coruna, Besiktas and St Etienne.

Closer to home, he has been in charge of the Welsh national team and Swansea City.

The 53-year-old completed discussions with Luciano Gaucci, whose family own both Catania and Serie A club Perugia, on Thursday.

A statement on the club's website, released around 1030 GMT on Thursday, said: "John Benjamin Toshack is the new trainer of Catania Football Club.

"The agreement with the Gaucci family was completed a few hours ago in Rome."

Toshack's first game in charge will be on Monday when the team travels to Tuscany to take on Siena.