England coach Fabio Capello has been named the 2009 Coach of the Year at the BBC Sports Personality awards show.

The 63-year-old Italian guided England to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa winning an impressive nine out of the 10 qualifiers played.

Capello said: "I'm very proud to win this award. I want to share it with my staff and all the players that will be with me in South Africa."

He is one of the most successful football club coaches of all time.

The Italian helped Serie A giants AC Milan to four league titles and a European Cup and also guided Roma, Juventus and Spain's Real Madrid to league titles.

Capello's England opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 2-0 victory in Andorra, before beating Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb in September 2008.

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Victories over Kazakhstan (twice), Belarus, Ukraine and Andorra again followed, meaning England would qualify for the finals with two games to spare if they could beat Croatia at Wembley.

England were 2-0 up at half-time courtesy of a Frank Lampard penalty and Steven Gerrard effort. The midfielders both scored again after the break to put the result beyond doubt as England triumphed 5-1 to book their place in South Africa.

The only blot in qualifying was a 1-0 defeat in Ukraine in England's penultimate qualifying game.

England were seeded for the World Cup draw and have been joined in Group C by the United States, Slovenia and Algeria.

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