Guus Hiddink may return as Socceroos coach ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as pressure mounts of current coach Holger Osieck to retain his job.
Hiddink, responsible for Australia’s dream run to the last 16 at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, left his role with Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in July and is one of the high profile candidates Football Federation Australia would likely pursue should Osieck be fired, according to a report by the Herald Sun.
The 66-year-old was rumoured to have received a huge offer from Qatar to lead their national team until the nation hosts the 2022 World Cup and if Hiddink is after a short-term gig, the Socceroos may represent the perfect stopgap.
The Socceroos have two vital European friendlies next week- against France in Paris and Canada in London- and it is believed the FFA will determine there whether Osieck maintains his role as coach.
Hiddink’s agent Cees van Nieuwenhuizen denied Hiddink had received any formal offers to coach in Brazil.
“He has done three World Cups with three different teams so I am almost sure that he would love to do another one. And the World Cup is coming up in a country like Brazil where football is more or less a religion,’’ he told the Herald Sun.
“In principle it is possible that Guus has been contacted already, but on the other hand I would expect if it happened and there was serious interest that Guus would’ve informed me as well.’
Australia’s 6-0 loss to Brazil last month has put Osieck under the pump.
“It’s massive (the coming France game), that Brazil game was pretty embarrassing from our point of view and we didn’t pull any positives out of it at all,” said Bayer Leverkusen’s Robbie Kruse.
“Everyone can say they’re world class but it’s not an excuse, it was a terrible performance.
“They carved us up at will so it was really disappointing after qualifying for the World Cup.
“We can’t really say too much now, there’s still plenty of time to rectify things and move forward and these two games will give us a much better picture of where we’re at.”
The French have concerns of their own. They have plummeted to No.25 in the FIFA world rankings and have scored just once in their past six outings, a 4-2 win over Belarus.
Get amongst CraveOnlineAU on Twitter and Facebook for daily sport, music, entertainment and gaming news.
Follow Robert White on Twitter @RobertWhitebrrr.
Clive Brunskill, Getty Images.
