- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic (left), who is tipped to become the next Reggae Boyz coach, speaks with Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Crenston Boxhill (right) and Nigel Pagon, GM Challenger's CEO, following a luncheon at The Gleaner Company yesterday.

Howard Walker, Staff Reporter

Serbian-born coach Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic all but sealed his position as Jamaica's next football technical director when he met with some of corporate Jamaica's leading officials at a luncheon at The Gleaner Company yesterday.

Milutinovic, 62, arrived in the island on Thursday to finalise his four-year deal worth approximately US$1 million a year.

Milutinovic, who has the distinction of being the only coach to lead five different countries to the World Cup, said his ultimate goal "is to go to South Africa," then he paused and added in halting English, "and come back home."

Although Milutinovic was paraded before a host of top corporate executives, Crenston Boxhill, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), said the deal is not yet done.

NO CONTRACT YET

"We have not yet signed a contract so I cannot say we have secured his services," Boxhill told The Gleaner.

"We have been in discussion with quite a few coaches and we have reached a stage where we have singled it down to one and we have invited Bora here on a familiarisation trip where he will be able to meet with the stakeholders," added Boxhill.

"We will be showing him around the various facilities and we are hoping to finalise the discussions we have started a few weeks ago," Boxhill noted.

The sharp-witted Bora showed a lot of charm and humour as he greeted the stakeholders and members of The Gleaner staff and football team.

When quizzed as to his plans for the future, he quickly pointed out that he would use the time to get familiar with the players, both locally and overseas.

BEST PLAYERS

Said Milutinovic: "We need to use the time to observe the new young players and our best players to make plans for the preparation of the qualifiers for the World Cup."

The Reggae Boyz, with their failure in the Digicel Caribbean Cup, also failed to qualify for the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup and will be inactive in tournaments until the World Cup qualifiers begin in early 2008.

"Also it is very important if our Olympic team can go to the Olympics, that would be perfect. I think it is important for soccer in this country to go to the Olympics. My experience with the Mexican and U.S.A. team is that if you have good Olympic team, then you have good senior A team," he pointed out.

For the moment, the much-travelled Milutinovic noted that he would not be needing any members of his own coaching staff.

"None for the moment. We have time to analyse everything. At this moment, we don't have official competition so a little bit later somebody will come."