With Manchester United playing hardball and seemingly content with Louis Van Gaal for the time being, Jose Mourinho clearly has other options to coach.
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According to Indonesia youth and sports minister Imam Nahrawi, Mourinho is being targeted as the country’s next manager, despite being banned from the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and 2019 Asian Cup.
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The 53-year-old manager is just the beginning to sweeping plans that Nahrawi says will bring the focus back to Indonesian football.
“This plan has been discussed with President Joko Widodo and the Chairman of the Indonesian Olympics Committee, Erick Thohir, even though this won’t be easy,” Nahrawi said. “Our national team head coach must be a foreigner, accompanied with our local coaches as his assistant.”
If there’s any chance of the planned move to be completed, Thohir will likely be the key piece in getting a deal done, although it seems quite unlikely. Thohir serves as president of Serie A side Inter Milan — where Mourinho managed from 2008 to 2010 — and could potentially convince the Portuguese to take the position.
Indonesia is currently ranked 185th in the FIFA rankings. The nation reached its peak in the rankings back in 1998 and 2001, when Indonesia cracked the top 100 at 87.
Nahrawi has that Mourinho would command over $18 million annually if he were to accept the challenging job of coaching Indonesia.