Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Jamaica's new football coach, Bora Milutinovic, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, on Thursday, October 12. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic is expected to officially sign on as Jamaica's new technical director when he arrives in the island from Mexico later this week.

In fact, Milutinovic, who will be present at the National Stadium on Wednesday for Jamaica's friendly international against Peru, could formally begin duties then while observing some among the talent pool as the three-month contract of interim national coach Carl Brown will be expiring following the game.

Sources close to the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) have revealed that a verbal agreement between the federation and the coach has already been reached.

The finalised contract is expected to be somewhere around US$1 million (J$66 million) per year for the next four years.

Best in the business

The 62-year-old Milutinovic, widely regarded by many in the international football arena among the best in the business at getting teams good results in short periods of time, is the only technical director to have coached five different teams at the World Cup - Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998), and China (2002).

Milutinovic also has the distinction of being the only coach to take four different teams past the tournament's first round, which he did with all of the above except China.

It is hoped that the Yugoslavia-born Milutinovic will be able to do the same with a Jamaican team that has struggled mightily in recent times, when they launch their bid to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa - dubbed the 'Back to Africa Campaign'.

Not only has the team failed in their last two attempts to qualify for the World Cup after making their debut at the 1998 final, but recently they tumbled out of the Digicel Caribbean Cup in the preliminary round.

The coach visited the island one month ago when he met key members of the corporate sector and viewed some of the players in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League.