German football manager Bernd Schuster is most likely to take over as coach of Romania’s national football team, according to local sports website digisport.ro.

The Romanian Football Federation – FRF has reached final negotiations with a foreign coach and will announce his name by the end of the Euro 2016, as promised, FRF president Razvan Burleanu said on Sunday. He didn’t mention the new coach’s name, as the contract hasn’t been signed yet, but hinted that he will likely be German.

Bernd Schuster, 56, played midfielder for FC Koln, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Bayer Leverkusen. He ended his professional footballer career in 1997 and started coaching.

He has managed FC Koln, Xerez, Shakhtar Donetsk, Levante, Getafe, Real Madrid, Besiktas, and Malaga. He has been a free agent since May 2014 when his contract with Spanish club Malaga ended. His best result as a coach was winning La Liga and the Spanish Supercup with Real Madrid in the 2007-2008 season.

The Romanian federation has also negotiated with Armin Veh, who recently parted with German Club Eintracht Frankfurt, and Ralf Rangnick, a former Schalke 04 manager.

Other foreign managers have been considered and approached for the job as well, one of them being Dutchman Guss Hiddink. Hiddink, who has managed big European clubs such as PSV Eindhoven, Fenerbahce, Valencia, Real Madrid, and Chelsea, as well as the national teams of Australia, Russia, Turkey, and the Netherlands, had financial requests that the Romanian federation could not meet, according to digisport.ro.

The same was the case of Italian Alberto Zaccheroni, who also managed big teams in Italy, such as AC Milan, Inter Milano, and Juventus.

Italians Luigi Delneri and Delio Rossi may have also been on the list, as well as Albania’s Italian manager Gianni De Biasi.

Romania’s national football team has only had one foreign coach in its history: Austrian Josef Uridil managed the team at the World Cup in 1934.

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editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Malaga CF on Facebook)