Portugal eye Scolari successor

Scolari: Tough act to follow

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Portugal hope to name Luiz Felipe Scolari's replacement as national team coach by the middle of July.

Following a 3-2 defeat to Germany in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 on Thursday, Scolari is now set to take up his new post as manager of Premier League side Chelsea.

Replacing a man with such an impressive CV will be a thankless task for the Portuguese Football Federation, but their president Gilberto Madail is confident that a new man will be in place inside a month.

"All the possible candidates will be discussed next week," he said.

"It is not an easy task because we have to find a replacement for Luiz Felipe Scolari by mid-July."

Ambitious

Madail went on to stress that the new coach must be fluent in Portuguese and have an all-encompassing desire to be the best.

"It is important to learn to speak Portuguese so he can communicate with players.

"The coach must be a proven winner, and be ambitious.

"And above all else, he must have the respect of the players while his target will be to qualify the team for the 2010 World Cup finals."

One of the early names in the frame for the job is Manchester United assistant manager Carlos Queiroz.

He has enjoyed considerable success as Sir Alex Ferguson's right-hand man at Old Trafford, but endured a disappointing one-season spell in charge of Real Madrid during his only taste of managerial experience to date.

Quite whether that qualifies him to lead his country remains to be seen, especially as he will be stepping into the shoes of a man who led Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002 and Portugal to a final, semi-final and quarter-final of the last three major international tournaments.