UAE's chase for Rueda hits agent obstacle

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  • Wanted man: Reinaldo Rueda in action (Getty)

    The UAE Football Association’s efforts to circumvent Reinaldo Rueda’s agent have further complicated an already-tangled bid to make him the nation’s next coach.

    Rueda, 60, and recently-dismissed Argentina boss Edgardo Bauza, 59, emerged on Wednesday as the governing body’s leading options to replace Mahdi Ali.

    The UAE FA have been notified in official documentation that the representative they must contact to complete any deal for Rueda is Pedro Pinto of Porto-based agency DNN Sport. But a range of favoured Middle Eastern middle men have been utilised to muscle in on the move, angering a candidate who is prepared to accept a $3 million per annum, three-year contract – which would cover all his staff – contrary to reports in his native Colombia that he intends to stick with Atletico Nacional.

    Rueda – who led Honduras and Ecuador at the last two World Cups – is just one of a number of stellar clients listed on DNN Sport’s website, which includes Espanyol and ex-Al Ahli supremo Quique Sanchez Flores, Paris Saint-Germain’s Unai Emery plus former Middlesbrough tactician Aitor Karanka.

    A yearly wage ceiling of approximately $3m has been set for the Whites post. Bauza’s decision to decrease his financial demands from an initial $8m to $4m makes him the current favourite.

    Intriguingly, both Rueda and Bauza could already have been working in the Emirates.

    The former was judged too expensive by Bani Yas last summer before their disastrous appointment of Uruguay’s Pablo Repetto, whom he beat in the 2016 Copa Libertadores final.

    For Bauza, he ignored overtures from Al Wasl at the same time to bank on Argentina swooping him up from Brazil’s Sao Paulo. Although he was hired by La Albiceleste in August 2016, his tenure was terminated after eight months because of poor results.

    The UAE are next in action on June 13 in Thailand. They sit fourth in the third-and-final round of World Cup 2018 qualifiers, one place outside the progression spots.

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