one guy who managed a CONCACAF country that's worse than the US one guy who manages a third division German side (and has lived in Germany for over 15 years at this point) one guy who was born in Iran, managed a solid career as an assistant in Asia before becoming a top manager in the Iranian league and taking the reigns for the national team. Now managing in the J-League one guy who manages a fourth division German side We're not exactly setting the world on fire with our coaching exports. It's just as important as exporting players long term.
As an American currently living in the Middle East, I'd love to see how the Egypt situation pans out... there's a HUGE Egyptian community in Qatar + UAE where I'm based and I world and occasionally play footy with many Egyptians. Will be interesting to see their reactions should he get the job. If he gets them to the WC then it will be a big boost to his resume and prove that he can get the job done overseas, which might be something inhibiting bigger European clubs from taking a chance on BB.
Sorry guys, but even tongue- (or corndog-) in-cheek threadjacks are threadjacks. We'll hold onto this thread until Bob finds a place. If that place is with a non-US club, we'll start a thread about it here. If it's with Egypt or another NT, then we'll have to make a decision.
There are Arabic news reports today that Bob Bradley turned down $4.5 million/year to coach Qatar in order to stay in the hunt for the Egypt job. The article he links to apparently includes a quote from Zak Abdel confirming the story. Qatar appointed Brazilian Sebastião Lazaroni as their new coach earlier this month.
You might have heard they have a little oil money; enough to have bought their own EPL squads and World Cup, featuring - air conditioning for 75,000 people while it's a sunny 120 degrees. Just for fun. So yeah that number is not out of line with which other names get lured to Middle East; sounds plausible. Ok, I am exaggerating, only occasionally passes 110.
Says a lot about Qatar's national team that not even offering Bob more money than he makes in 4 years can sway his choice. Ridiculous that they will be in a world cup.
Can I call bullshit on Bob turning down $4.5M/Y (on what was probably a 3-4 year contract for a $15M total), even with the US taxing one third of it?
Knowing how the House of Saud and the Qatari's have always thrown money at foreign professionals (architects, engineers, etc), not just players & coaches, the number is fully within the realm of believability for me.
~ $4M/Y is what Rajevac was making ... but why would Bob turn it down? It's his golden parachute and the answer to all the world's problems.
My guess is no guarantees. 6 coaches in the last 8 years and Rajevac lasting only 6 months, makes the job a little uneasy.
Qatar? And you thought our player pool was bad... Bob would be "on the computer" scouting candidates from the Faroe Islands 4th division.
The average length of stay for the coach is .75 years. (.75 yrs @ $4,500,000/yr.) Can we review the downside points again?
If Bob Bradley got fired(in a year or so) from Qatar his options drys up. MLS would be his only choice.
I'm glad Bradley didn't take the Qatar job. I don't want to see anybody in US Soccer have anything to do with the Qatari FA. Kudos to Bob for turning down the big money and retaining his dignity.
When they get bored with you, they cut you loose and even if the contract is guaranteed, there is no guarantee.
More like he'd be scouting players in the Nigerian provincial leagues who don't have a strong sense of national pride.
It's one thing to screw with the run-of-the-mill white collar employees not backed by a giant conglomerate doing business with the royal family. It's another to screw with a "name". First of all, they will have trouble with FIFA. Second, and more importantly, they won't be able to attract anyone of note after getting an unworthy reputation. Look how the foreign coaches treated the USSF after the 2006 Gulati-Klinsmann negotiations. Mike Rajevac probably had a buy-out clause but I'd estimate he still made about $5M for half a year of work. And you would have heard about it, if there were problems with the payout. In that regard, I have doubts that the offer ever existed other than in the mind of some not so intrepid reporters. BTW, Sheik Al Thani allegedly offered Pep Guardilola €30M a year to coach the national team. Pep turned the offer down ... for right now.