Luis Felipe Scolari, the coach who won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 and took Portugal to the semifinals of the recently completed tournament in Germany, has emerged as the dark horse for the plum job of national coach of South Africa.
However, he will have to beat the frontrunner, Gerard Houllier, whose wife is concerned that a change of climate might exacerbate the former French coach’s health problems.
Whoever gets the job will become one of the highest-paid coaches in world football, earning at least £100 000 (R1,3-million) a month. The South African government and local business have committed themselves to paying whatever is needed to get the top man for the job.
South African Football Association (Safa) officials decline to say exactly when the name of the new coach will be confirmed, though they promise that the issue will be resolved in the next fortnight, saying the matter ”is urgent and can’t go beyond this month”.
As late as Thursday afternoon, the Safa executive was still locked in discussions around the final packages to be offered to the leading contenders. The exact terms of the contract appears to be what is holding up the announcement.
While manager of Liverpool, Houllier collapsed on the touchline during an English premier league match in October 2001. After heart surgery he was out of the game for five months. Considering the pressures of the South African position, Houllier, currently in charge of French league champions Lyon, wants a separate deal over and above his regular contract to cover any costs arising from his medical condition.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who was recommended by the Safa technical committee before the World Cup, is no longer in the running. The Brazilian coach seems to have ruled himself out, firstly by dilly-dallying over whether he is interested, and then by the weak showing of his team in the World Cup.
The new coach’s remit will be, firstly, to prepare Bafana Bafana for 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana. The first qualifiers are in September. The other, more important requirement is to develop a side that can at least reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup when South Africa are hosts in 2010.
Houllier, who once worked in England as a schoolteacher, is often credited with laying the groundwork for the success of the French team that won the World Cup as hosts in 1998. When he was in charge of Les Bleus, in the early 1990s, he oversaw the establishment of the now world-renowned Clairfontaine facility, where talent is identified and primed for success.
Although regarded as an amiable man, more likely to use the carrot than the stick, he showed he could stand up to players by ending the international career of maverick genius Eric Cantona.
Scolari is passionate and disciplined, with the enviable record of having won 12 consecutive World Cup matches as coach of Brazil and then Portugal, but he does not speak English.
He is a hard taskmaster unlikely to be swayed by the media or public opinion. When he was told how unpopular some of his decisions were as Portugal prepared to host Euro 2004, he was unmoved, saying: ”Being hated by eight million people is nothing; I was hated by 30-million in Brazil before 2002.”