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Former Chelsea manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, has joined the list of coaches willing to coach Nigeria’s Super Eagles at the 2010 World Cup. A top member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) revealed to SoccerStar that the body decided to extend an invitation letter to Scolari at the weekend to attend the February 26 interview after showing keen interest in the job.

Scolari

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“Scolari has indicated a serious interest in coaching Nigeria so we have no choice than to include his name among the shortlisted coaches to be interviewed in a fortnight time,” he stated.

The Brazilian-born coach, it would be recalled, led his country to win the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup after which he took Portugal to the 2004 European Cup Final.

Just last year, he signed 18 months deal that worth 13 million Euro with Bunyodkor FC of Uzbekistan to make him the highest paid manager in the world and it remains a big doubt whether he would dump the rich Asian club for Nigeria.

Meanwhile, NFF has finally ruled out Guus Hiddink from the race citing huge financial demands as part of the reasons why he was dropped.

Unconfirmed reports disclosed that Hiddink who earns $8m per year as Russian coach had requested for a whopping sum of $3m for four months among other financial conditions that didn’t go down well with the NFF.

In a related development, Italian-born coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, has also withdrawn from the race, saying he is happy as the coach of the Republic of Ireland. All the invited coaches are expected to start arriving Abuja as from February 24 ahead of the interview scheduled to hold on the 26th.