Twist in Saintfiet tale
Bangladesh national football team's head coach-hopeful Tom Saintfiet has kept the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) waiting for a proposed three-month agreement after the Belgian coach skipped the official signing ceremony citing sickness yesterday.
“Today [Wednesday] we were supposed to strike a deal with Tom Saintfiet, but he requested us to postpone the signing as he fell in ill last night,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag.
The twist in this tale apparently emerged after Frenchman Paul Le Guen turned down an offer to take charge of the Nigeria national team on July 20. Le Guen's refusal to take the Nigeria job, where Saintfiet was one of three shortlisted candidates, has seemingly reignited Saintfiet's hope of landing the Super Eagle's job.
The Belgian recently gave an interview with supersports.com, posted on July 24, where he expressed his desire to take charge of the Nigeria team. "Nigeria is my priority and that is why I have not taken up the Bangladesh job. I have postponed the signing and I want to go to the World Cup with Nigeria and not just that but to reach the semis of the World Cup because they have the quality to do so. I am ready to live in Nigeria,” said the Saintfiet in that interview.
Explaining his interview yesterday, Saintfiet said: “I did give an interview a few weeks ago. I think we discussed the Nigeria topic one or two weeks ago. We spoke to media about Nigeria, who can go the World Cup again.”
The 43-year-old coach added: “I watched six matches of the Bangladesh Premier League in the last three days and will watch another six matches in coming three days which shows my commitment to prepare a strong team for the Bhutan matches because my goal is to see Bangladesh qualify for the Asian Cup Qualifiers.”
He made this statement after holding a discussion with BFF president Kazi Salahuddin in the afternoon.
When asked about when he wants to sign the agreement with BFF, Saintfiet said: “I don't know exactly when I will sign the agreement and that is not important because I am doing the job. You could have signed a coach who doesn't have a job, but I am in a job which proves I am here to work with Bangladesh.”
“I have a verbal agreement with the president which is the most important thing. I think signing papers is not important,” Saintfiet explained. “If Real Madrid or Argentina call me up, I will consider, but at the moment I don't have any offer from any federation or club except for Bangladesh. I am happy to be here.”
Having informed that there is no chance of an agreement before Saintfiet's return in August, the BFF general secretary informed that the Belgian will fly home on July 31 and return to Bangladesh on August 17 to watch the sixth round matches of the league before starting national team's training camp from August 21 for the September 6 match against Bhutan.
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