Craig Bellamy believes he has been handed a "rare opportunity" as he begins his tenure as Wales manager.

Bellamy was named the new Wales boss on Tuesday following Rob Page's sacking last month, with the country having failed to qualify for Euro 2024.

It is Bellamy's first senior managerial role and the former Wales captain has signed a four-year contract. As a player, he made 78 appearances for the national team, scoring 19 goals.

Bellamy had been named as Burnley's acting head coach following Vincent Kompany's move to Bayern Munich in May, but turned down the opportunity to stay on as a coach following Scott Parker's appointment.

He called taking the Wales position "my ultimate dream" when the deal was agreed and then faced the media for the first time on Wednesday, explaining why he had opted not to remain with Burnley.

"Timing in football, you don’t always get that luxury," Bellamy said. "The last three months it became clear to me I was happy but I needed more. 

"I needed to look for a number one spot for me, as a person for my progression and obviously didn't know what that [opportunity] was going to be at that time.

"I just sort of made it clear to myself that this is what it's going to be and this is how I'm going to go about it. Then obviously the situation changed here with Wales.

"Wales has always been really important to me. I've spent a lot of my career away from here as well but I've had certain periods where I've been here and I was born here.

"The opportunity to lead your national team is rare and [it is even more rare] to get it as a first opportunity.

"It became clear to me that if there was an opportunity to do this, this is the one I wanted and I'm grateful."

The first match in charge for ex-Liverpool striker Bellamy, who says he has learned hugely from his time at Burnley, will be at home against Turkiye in the Nations League on September 6.

"Playing wise, I do like front-foot football and I like pressing," he said. "The team comes first so we are going to be difficult to break through. We build from the back. We commit.

"I want to dominate in every aspect and win football matches.

"I just had two seasons, the first winning nearly every week [in the Championship], then going to the Premier League and losing most weeks. I’ve seen the level and how much you learn. You learn more when you’re losing.

"In order to qualify for tournaments, with the detail you have to go into, the work starts now."

Craig Bellamy has been named as the new Wales manager, following Rob Page's departure last month.

It is Bellamy's first senior managerial role, with the former Wales captain signing a four-year contract.

As a player, he made 78 appearances for the national team between 1998 and 2014, scoring 19 goals.

"It's an incredible honour for me to be given the opportunity to lead my country, and it's the proudest moment of my career," Bellamy told the FAW website. "It was always my ultimate dream to become the Cymru head coach, and I am ready for the challenge."

Bellamy had been named as Burnley's acting head coach following Vincent Kompany's move to Bayern Munich in May, but turned down the opportunity to stay as a coach following Scott Parker's appointment.

His first match in charge will be at home against Turkiye in the Nations League on September 6.

Craig Bellamy has been named as acting head coach at Burnley following Vincent Kompany’s shock move to Bayern Munich.

The Belgian, who took over the Clarets in June 2022, could not keep Burnley in the Premier League, being relegated after a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in their penultimate match of the season.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that Kompany was replacing Thomas Tuchel as Bayern head coach on a three-year deal.

Burnley have now announced that Bellamy will take on the role of acting head coach while they look for a permanent manager, with Mike Jackson as his assistant coach.

The Welshman was rumoured to be joining Kompany in Bavaria but is in the running to become the new Burnley manager, with Frank Lampard and Scott Parker also reportedly linked to the job. 

Burnley assistant manager Craig Bellamy refused to pin any blame on Aro Muric after a horrible mistake from the goalkeeper cost the relegation-battling Clarets in a 1-1 Premier League draw with Brighton.

Five minutes after Josh Brownhill’s opportunistic goal had given Burnley a late lead, Muric let a routine back pass from Sander Berge slip under his foot and in.

Muric has spent most of this season on the bench after Vincent Kompany signed James Trafford in the summer, but the Kosovan, a key part of Burnley’s promotion-winning side last term, dislodged the England Under-21 keeper in March, coinciding with an improvement in Burnley’s form.

And Bellamy, taking the place of Kompany who was serving a touchline ban, said the team had to take responsibility for the mistake because of the way they choose to play out from the back.

“It’s us,” Bellamy said. “It’s not his mistake, it’s our mistake. Do we call it a mistake? I don’t know. It’s how we play. It ain’t going to change. He’s scored goals for us, doing what he does. It’s one of those, it’s not an issue.

“It’s how we play football. It might not please everyone. We’re not here to please everyone, but we believe in this way of football. It might be naive, I don’t know.

“I have a three-year-old girl who still believes in rainbows and unicorns. That might be me. I honestly believe we’re going to get out of this situation, I believe we’re going to stay up. Maybe I’m naive. Maybe I’m the one believing in rainbows and unicorns and it’s actually got to my head.

“But at the same time, I’ve no issue with it. Aro is top. Get the ball again, look for the pass again. You see the save he makes in the last minute. Top. That to me is a goalkeeper. We all make mistakes, it’s how you respond from it. So I’ve got nothing but praise for him, even more.”

Burnley’s goal also came from a back pass, with Carlos Baleba under-hitting a ball to Bart Verbruggen and Brownhill racing after it, with the keeper’s clearance rebounding off him and into the net.

But the bigger frustration was with the chances Burnley missed earlier in the game, with opportunities for Jacob Bruun Larsen and David Fofana going begging – moments that would cost them by the end.

“We played well, especially in the first half,” Bellamy said. “We had good opportunities and should have scored. Coming in from the first half we were a little bit disappointed we weren’t 1-0 or 2-0 up, but that can be football.”

While Burnley rued two lost points, it was yet another draw for injury-hit Brighton – their 11th of the campaign, more than any other side.

Roberto De Zerbi began with the day without nine players through injury and lost Pervis Estupinan only 13 minutes in, leaving the manager to admit their hopes of returning to Europe next season are in peril as they sit 10th in the table.

“It was a fair result,” the Italian said. “For me, we didn’t deserve to win the game, but I think we didn’t deserve to lose the game. We suffered especially in the first 20 minutes, we suffered badly, but after that time, in the last 70 minutes we played a good game but not a great game.

“We are not in the right condition to play great games. In these moments we are suffering, we are spending tough moments, but we have to fight how we did, with pride, with our qualities.

“It is a tough moment, we have a lot of injuries. We are too many points from the high positions to reach our European target. I don’t know. Maybe it can happen.”