Singapore Coach Shortlist – Cannavaro, Kewell and a Europa League winner under remarkable names: reports

Ballon d’Or winner Fabio Cannavaro and a former Liverpool attacker, Harry Kewell, are said to be one of the prominent names on the shortlist for the next head coach of the national football team of Singapore.

According to Singaporean Daily The Straits TimesMore than 60 people had applied for the task of the men’s team head coach, including the World Cup-winning captain Cannavaro in Italy.

Cannavaro, considered one of the best center backs of all time, is one of the three defenders who wins the Ballon d’Or, after Franz Beckenbauer and Matthias Sammer. He led Italy to the World Cup title in 2006 and won two La Liga titles with Real Madrid.

However, he was no longer able to reach as a coach in 2019 and winning the Chinese Super League with Guangzhou Evergrande in 2019 will remain his only major achievement.

Coaching China remains his only national team assignment, while his last coaching tint was in Croatia, with Dinamo Zagreb, where he was fired after just 14 games as head coach.

Another name on the list is former winger Australian Kewell, who won the UEFA Champions League with Liverpool in 2005.

Kewell, a former head coach on the Japanese side Yokahama Marinos, had also applied for the job of the India coach, where he could not get the last shortlist with three men.

Kewell had also been an assistant coach of former Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou during his time at Celtic between 2022 and 2024.

Nick Montgomery, another assistants from Postecoglou – from Tottenham – is also on the list of applicants. This year Montgomery won the A-League Championship with Central Coast Mariners and the Europa League, as part of the Spurs camp.

Reportedly other names on the shortlist are former Indonesia coach Luis Milla, former Iraq -coach Jesus Casas and former manager of Thailand, Mano Polking, who had led the war elephants to the Asean championship titles of 2020 and 2022.

The spot of the men’s team coach has been empty since Tsutomu Ogura left the side last month, with reference to personal reasons. Singapore, sitting on top of group C classification in the third round of AFC Asian Cup qualifications, then plays India in October, a side that will also be under a new head coach.