Parreira willing to "evaluate" return for South Africa (Roundup)

Oct 20, 2009, 0:20 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is 'willing to evaluate' a return to South Africa to lead the host team in the 2010 World Cup.

'There is a possibility that there may be an invitation, and I would be willing to evaluate it, if it becomes concrete,' Parreira told the Brazilian television channel GloboNews in an interview Monday.

Another Brazilian, Joel Santana, was removed from the job of South African national coach, the South African Football Association said Monday in a statement.

'Mr Santana would, with immediate effect, vacate his current position as Bafana Bafana national coach,' the statement read.

In the interim, Jairo Leal and Pitso Mosimane would act as 'caretaker coaches,' the statement said, pending a more long-term decision by Friday.

Parreira stepped down as South Africa's coach last year for personal reasons and suggested Santana as a replacement.

Parreira stressed that the South African Football Association had not contacted him yet, but he made it clear that he would be glad to take part in his eighth World Cup, this time with the Bafana Bafana.

The man who led Brazil to the World Cup trophy in 1994 and to a resounding failure in 2006 thinks Leal's stay with the South African team indicates that the federation would like to remain with 'the Brazilian school' of coaches.

'There will not be a radical change,' Parreira said.

He said he was sorry about Santana's exit, in the wake of a series of very poor results.

'It was not quite a surprise, because Joel had been under very great pressure. Eight defeats in nine matches are really a lot, but you have to take into account that South Africa lost to teams like Brazil, Germany, Spain, Serbia - these are perfectly acceptable results,' he said.

'There is probably another reason (for Santana's exit), which we do not yet know.'

Parreira said he had spoken Monday to Santana, who was 'surprised but calm.'

The veteran Parreira stressed that his own exit from the Bafana Bafana command was not due to professional reasons or criticism about his high pay.

'When I accepted the invitation of the South African federation (in 2006), I did not do it for the pay but for the wish to lead the host country in a World Cup,' he said. 'I was planning to stay for four years, but I had to leave the job for family reasons.'

For Parreira, the main challenge for South Africa's incoming coach will be to recover players' confidence in the wake of recent poor results.

'The coach that comes in will have to break the barrier of low self-esteem among players after eight defeats. To do that, he will have to bring back and emphasize the importance of the work that was done for the Confederations Cup (in June), in which they had the support of the whole country,' he said.

Parreira noted that before his own arrival in 2006, South Africa had not been playing other national teams for preparation, which limited their opportunities to be challenged and improve.

'I fought to have them play strong teams. Now, when the World Cup comes, we will already have played the best in the world,' he said.

However, the coach admitted that the remaining time before the start of the World Cup in June is not enough to solve the team's main problem.

'The greatest difficulty for South African football is the lack of goalscorers,' he said. 'And you cannot find a goalscorer in a few months.'