Scolari to leave Portugal job to manage Chelsea

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-12  |     ONLINE EDITION

PORTUGAL coach Luiz Felipe Scolari will become Chelsea manager after the European Championship.

The Premier League club announced Avram Grant's replacement on its Web site Wednesday after Scolari's side secured a quarterfinal berth by beating the Czech Republic 3-1.

Billionaire owner Roman Abramovich's hiring of a World Cup winner is starkly different to the surprise that greeted the inexperienced Grant's appointment last September.

Scolari, who guided his native Brazil to its fifth world title in 2002, will take up the Chelsea job on July 1, becoming the fourth manager since 2003.

The 59-year-old former defender has never managed a European club, but has won the Copa Libertadores, South America's knockout competition, with Brazilian clubs Gremio and Palmeiras.

"Felipe has great qualities," Chelsea said in a statement. "He is one of the world's top coaches with a record of success at country and club level, he gets the best out of a talented squad of players and his ambitions and expectations match ours.

"He was the outstanding choice."

Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo backed the move and could come up against Scolari next season if he remains at Manchester United.

"He needs to look for his future. I respect that," said Ronaldo, who one of Portugal's three goals yesterday. "If he has better conditions, better things for the family and for him, I respect that. This is football, it's always like that."

Scolari's Portugal lost the Euro 2004 final on home soil to Greece and was ousted by France in 2006 World Cup semifinals.

"It would be hard to leave, for the beauty of the country and for all that Portugal has," he said Tuesday, a day before the contract was announced. "It's hard, but I'm a professional. I lived and I can live anywhere in the world. I have to be prepared for anything."