Felipe Scolari will be named for a second spell as coach of the Brazilian national side today, press reports said yesterday.
“The Brazil Football Federation (CBF) has already chosen its new coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari will replace Mano Menezes,” the GloboEsporte website said.
An official announcement is expected today.
Scolari, who previously coached Brazil to World Cup glory in Japan in 2002, will be charged with bringing further success on home soil in 2014.
Scolari, 64, is available after recently parting company with Palmeires.
The CBF sacked Menezes last week after just two years in the job, with the Selecao having lost in the quarter-finals of last year’s Copa America and then going down to Mexico in the Olympic final in London.
Five-times world champions Brazil are eager that the new man should use next year’s Confederations Cup to blood new stars as they prepare to secure a first World Cup in the country since 1950.
In his first stint as Brazil manager, Scolari was forgiven for a pale Confederations Cup showing in 2001 after he led the Selecao to the World Cup win in Japan the following year.
He later coached Portugal and led them to the final of Euro 2004 on home soil before a disastrous spell with Chelsea in 2008.
Despite former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola being linked with the job, CBF chairman Jose Maria Marin has gone on record as saying that a Brazilian ought to be found who knows exactly what the job entails.
Asked about potential choices and having previously said he would wait until January before deciding on his man, Marin said: “I have faith in our Brazilian coaches.
“We won five (world) titles with them. That’s why it would be very difficult to call in a foreigner,” A Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Marin as saying on Tuesday.