Monrovia – Credible reports reaching FrontPageAfrica’s Sport Desk say, former French U-20 coach Pierre Mankowski has pulled out of deal to take over the national team of Liberia for personal and financial reasons.
The news comes days after it was reported that the 68-year-old Frenchman was set to take over the national team following Thomas Kojo’s failure to qualify Lone Star for the African Nations Championship qualifiers where they were eliminated by Senegal on a 3-1 aggregate.
Prior to the local based Lone Star’s clash, the LFA disclosed that head coach Thomas Kojo was given a mandate to qualify the team to the finals of CHAN and if not his contract was going to be terminated, Mustapha Raji, president of the LFA, told journalists in July of 2019 at a well-attended press conference .
A source at the LFA further informed FrontPageAfrica that Kojo’s contract has expired after the CHAN qualifiers match against Senegal and the FA was awaiting his technical reports from the match, which proved that the job at the national team is now opened.
Many Liberians have called on the football house to bring in a foreign coach to help Liberia compete with other countries.
But, it is believed the LFA has turned its attention on employing a foreign coach and the first name that had been mentioned was former France U-21 World Cup winning Coach Pierre Mankowski.
According to our source, Mankowski was expected to arrive in Liberia this week to discuss personal terms with the football house and finalize his contract before being appointed as Lone Star head coach.
The French man, had he been appointed, could have had less than a month to put his team together as Liberia faces Sierra Leone in the World Cup qualifiers.
He was expected to be given two-round trip tickets to go home for vacation and a decent house and a car to be used in Liberia.
According to the reported deal, he was expected to sign a one-year contract with an option to extend for further year based on performance.
Mankowski was said to be impressed with the offer by the LFA as the financial terms were encouraging for him and saw Liberia as a country with natural talents that can be better in years if the right things are provided.
When LFA president Mustapha Raji was previously contacted about news of the Frenchman takeover of the Lone Star, he said he could not comment on the matter.
But it is understood that the contract negotiations between both parties had ended due to personal and financial reasons.
The 68-year-old Frenchman won the Fifa U-20 World Cup with France in 2013, a team that had some of Euro’s noticeable names that included Paul Pogba, Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Raphael Varane and Alphonse Areola Samuel Umtiti and Lucas Digne.
Mankowski was assistant coach to Jacques Santini when France clinched the Fifa Confederation Cup in 2003 defeating Cameroon in the final but he left the squad after France’s quarter-final exist in Euro 2004.
He was, however, called to the France technical staff by Coach Raymond Domenech for the 2006 world cup, where they finished as runner-up to Italy. The Frenchman has also coached every youth setup for his country from U-18, 19, 20 and 21 levels.