Canada close to hiring coach
The Canadian Soccer Association has narrowed the field down to 4 candidates for coach of the senior men’s national soccer team.
One of the front runners under consideration to replace Frank Yallop (who left to coach David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy of the MLS) is 54-year-old Brazilian Renê Simões, who led Jamaica to the World Cup finals in 1998. He also led the Brazilian women’s team to a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, and has coached the Brazilian U-20 and U-23 teams.
In a profile of him for the 1998 World Cup, the BBC described Simões as:
“A charismatic character, he has managed to get the whole country behind the Reggae Boyz with the help of his engaging personality. Simoes is popular and has instilled new confidence to a team that had much enthusiasm but lacked professionalism before his arrival in October 1994.”
Apparently, Simoes is also a committed Christian and, while coaching in Jamaica, had “Jesus Saves” printed on the back of his official Jamaican shirt. Here’s hoping that, if he gets the job, he has some connections, because right now it looks like Canada needs a miracle to get to South Africa for 2010.
[...] It’s expected the two Canadian candidates are under-20 coach Dale Mitchell and under-17 coach Stephen Hart with Brazilian Rene Simoesbelieved to be one of the foreign candidates. [...]