Kerr looks to manage South Africa

Soccer News: Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr is one of a number of candidates to be considered for the post of South Africa manager.

Kerr, whose contract was not renewed by the FAI after the Republic of Ireland failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, is among 43 applicants for the job. The South African Football Association (Safa) is not expected to announce the choice until after the African Cup of Nations on February 10th.

Speaking to The Irish Times last night Kerr's agent, Fintan Drury, confirmed the former St Patrick's Athletic manager had applied to manage the host nation of the 2010 World Cup.

"He has applied. He is interested in the job, it's an attractive job," Drury said. "He wants to be involved in professional football. Ideally, although not exclusively, he is attracted to international football.

"They are looking for somebody who has international experience but also they are very keen on the technical development side, which obviously he has done very successfully with the FAI, so he ticks a lot of their boxes."

It has also emerged Kerr turned down a job offer from another international football federation in the last fortnight.

Kerr had been linked with a number of club jobs in recent weeks, including vacancies at Hearts in the Scottish Premier League where there was brief contact. He was also named in the back-up plans for Premiership strugglers Portsmouth.

Bafana Bafana, as they are known, missed out on qualification for Germany's showpiece after a 2-0 defeat to Ghana in their final qualifier. The result led to the resignation of English coach Stuart Baxter.

"At the end of February hopefully we'll be in a position to announce who the new manager will be," Safa chief executive Raymond Hack said yesterday.

Romanian-born Ted Dumitru is in temporary charge of the side and may hold on to the job if his side emerge as African champions or beaten finalists in Cairo in February.