The Chicago Fire introduced Veljko Paunovic as the new head coach on Thursday Morning. (no worries if you can't exactly pronounce his Serbian name — he goes by "Pauno.")
In a sit down with CSN's Kelly Crull, a likable and immensely motivated Paunovic talks about embracing Chicago and pulling from his passion and ethic as a former footballer in order to rebuild a winning team.
The Fire had a disappointing finish last year and have missed the playoffs the last couple of seasons. Paunovic knows it isn't an easy task, so when Crull asks about his approach to making the Fire reach new heights, he laughs, "Thank you for asking that, because now — back to reality!"
But he answers simply, "We have to build a team."
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For someone who flew in from Madrid just the night before, Paunovic's energy is on fire. (Ha.) He tells Crull he was in Chicago last August and was quite taken by the city and it's people...even the weather. "I remember that night, there was a huge storm in Chicago, I said whoa! That was amazing, " he says. "I think I recorded it. I have the record for me."
Well Pauno, one thing is for sure...there will be a lot more storms for you to record.
Check out Kelly Crull's entire interview with Veljko Paunovic in the video above.