Rijkaard candidate for Mexico

Spanish news agency EFE claims that Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard (45) is one of the many candidates to replace Hugo Sánchez as coach of the Mexican national team. Sánchez was dismissed on Monday.

The Mexican football association did not yet pronounce on possible candidates but has stated that the successor of Sánchez should be someone with experience and a winning mentality who must lead the team to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Mexican sports paper Esto states that Mexico officials will soon start talks with a number of managers who could be up for the job, among which Frank Rijkaard.

Mexican youth coach Jesús Ramírez has been appointed as provisional coach. The Mexican football association seems in any case wanting to wait until the end of the Spanish league to make the name of the new manager public, with Atlético Madrid manager Javier Aguirre also being on the list. Other mentioned candidates include Argentinian manager Carlos Bianchi, Portuguese national team coach Felipe Scolari and former Argentinian national team coach José Pekerman.