The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) ended the year 2008 on a high, announcing on the New Year's Eve the arrival of a Brazilian coach for the national team.
Edson 'Dido' Silva, former footballer of Brazilian giants Flamengo (1979-81) and Santos FC (1983-84), will take over from February as Head Coach, confirmed BFF vice-president and hairman of the National Team lanagement Committee NTMC) Badal Royyesterday.
The 46-year-old Dido was Vietnam national coach in .'001 when his charges played against Bangladesh in the World Cup qualifiers. The Brazilian born, who also holds Dutch nationality, quit in September - three months before the expiry of his one-year contract -- after receiving death threat over e-mail and phone when he criticised a local club for releasing a Brazilian player. He also
coached the Chinese Taipei national team in 2005.
Dido, who ended his playing career at Macabi Holon in Israel and also began his coaching career at the same club in 1995, coached clubs in Holland, Malta, UAE, China and Brazil before taking over
six-time Faroe Island champions GI Gota in January 2008.
Currently free, Dido is interested to arrive from Brazil in the third week of this month to see the last part of the B. League to have an idea about the players.
"We hope he would take
over from February and prepare the team for the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in April," told Badal Roy.
"We had been negotiating with a number of coaches and he is our final choice. We want to deal the entire matters of the national team professionally and hope the arrival of a full professional willbe helpful.
"We are interested to get back Argentine trainer Arial Coleman but we will wait for the coach's decision on these things," said Badal adding that the BFF has also decided to renew the contract of Shafiqul Islam Manik as national coach.
"It will be finalised within a week and he will be under the head coach. Wc will try to provide more staff if the coach wants."
Dido -- who would be the 12th foreign coach for the national team, succeeding India's Syed Nayeemuddin will get 4,000 US dollars per month plus local facilities although he had initially asked for 6,000 euros.
"We have agreed on a term but the deal has yet to be
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signed. So it would not be wise for me to make any comments now," said BFF president Kazi Salahuddin, who gave the NTMC the green signal yesterdayafternoon.
Although Salahuddin is a fan of European football, ironically, he has been involved in appointing two coaches from South America. Earlier, the former national captain was the NTMC chairman when the BFF appointed Argentine coach Diego Cruciani in 2005.
"We've had a few candidates but Dido impressed me because he is familiar to the
football of this part of the world. He was national coach of Vietnam and Taiwan and has good knowledge of oriental football and familiar to the way of working in this region. Also, the salary is reasonable."
The contract, which will be sent to the coach by mail, is expected to be for two years.
It was learned that the BFF was considering coaches from Brazil, Argentina, Europe and was very interested about Myanmar's ex-Brazilian coach Marcos Antonio Falopa. whose contract ended recently.
A centre-back in his playing career, Dido began as a profes-sional for Flamengo and
played only twice for Santos in the Brazilian top division, one against his former club Flamengo which had in the line-up 1994 World Cup winner Bebeto at the Maracana. The match ended 2-2.
As a coach he received awards for the youngster head coach of a national team, best coach in East Asia (2001) and best coach of International Football Festival (2005). Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English and Dutch languages, he got his professional coaching licence from the Brazilian Football Coaches Association. CREFI and Syndicate of Brazilian Football Coaches.