Former Belgium international Luis Oliveira has emerged as one of the leading candidates to take over as coach of Premier League club Floriana.

The Greens are searching for a new coach after Italian Giovanni Tedesco quit his post earlier this month, having guided Floriana to fifth place in the BOV Premier League.

Riccardo Gaucci, the Floriana FC presi-dent, is intent on recruiting another foreign coach and Oliveira tops his list of targets.

Contacted by Times of Malta yesterday, Gaucci confirmed that he has already held talks with Oliviera but insisted that no deal has been agreed yet.

“I have spoken to Luis Oliveira and a couple of other candidates but we haven’t concluded anything,” Gaucci said.

It is believed that Gaucci is hoping to persuade Oliveira to take the job as this would represent something of a coup for Floriana.

Oliveira, 46, worked with Gaucci when the latter was in charge of Catania more than a decade ago.

A powerful striker in his prime, Oliveira, who was born in Brazil, also had spells with Anderlecht, Fiorentina, Cagliari and Bologna. He played 31 times for Belgium, scoring seven goals.

Oliveira is still in the embryonic stages of his coaching career, having led the unfashionable Sardinian club Muravera and recently had a short stint at the helm of Pro Patria in the Lega Pro.

Apart from his on-going hunt for a new coach, Gaucci is also seeking to sign a host of new foreign players for next season.

Italian forward Matteo Piciollo, Senegalese winger Amadou Samb and Brazilian midfielder Emerson Marcelina are expected to be retained by Floriana who have yet to decide whether to offer a new deal to Slo-venian striker Vito Plut.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.