Russia job could be Hiddink's last as coach

MOSCOW: Guus Hiddink has revealed that managing the Russian national team could be his last active coaching job, but he is keeping his options open.

"It is possible I might step out of coaching and have a more advisory role with a club or a national association after 2010," Hiddink told Reuters in an interview during his team's training camp on Turkey's Mediterranean coast earlier this month.

"Well, to be honest, I just don't know at this time," said the 61-year-old Dutchman, who last year agreed to extend his Russian contract for two more years beyond the Euro 2008 finals and through the 2010 World Cup.

"If I don't become a bitter old jealous man by then I might continue. Actually, I'm enjoying my job right now. I get a lot of positive energy working with young people, teaching them a few things. It's a big motivation for me to keep going."

Hiddink has already done some consulting work for FIFA and UEFA, the sport's world and European governing bodies.

"I've been regularly asked to speak at their workshops and seminars, to give presentations to other coaches," he said. "I find it a very good way to exchange ideas, to stay tuned to the latest technical and tactical developments in football."

Coaching jobs

The highly successful coach, who led his native Netherlands to the 1998 World Cup semi-finals before repeating the feat with South Korea four years later, has been constantly linked with top coaching jobs around the world.

"Rumors are always going around football," he said. "I hear some tabloids mention my name almost every time there is a coaching vacancy, but that doesn't bother me."

More than any other club, Hiddink has been linked with Chelsea because of his acquaintance with the English Premier League club's Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, who was instrumental in helping to lure the Dutchman to Moscow.

"All I can say for sure that for the next two years I'll be coaching Russia. What comes after that I just don't know," he said.

Hiddink's work in Russia has often been compared with that of his countryman Dick Advocaat, who last year, in his first full season with Zenit St Petersburg, steered the club to its national title in nearly a quarter of a century.

In an interview with Reuters in November 2006 about his long-lasting legacy in St Petersburg, Advocaat simply stated: "I just want to achieve results and win trophies with this club."

Asked the same question, Hiddink said: "Most of all, I would like to be remembered as an open, direct person, who also had the great pleasure of working in Russia.

"I've been very well received here by people and the warmth of the ordinary Russian people is the one thing I will probably remember the most."

Agencies

(China Daily 02/26/2008 page23)