ABIDJAN, July 4: Ivory Coast named five candidates, four of them French, on a shortlist to replace Henri Michel as national coach on Tuesday. Michel, also French, quit immediately after his team's first round elimination from the World Cup finals in Germany last month.

Those on the shortlist were Frenchmen Raynald Denoueix, Gerard Gili, Claude LeRoy and Philippe Troussier along with Martial Yeo, the technical director of the Ivorian Football Federation.

Yeo took the Ivorian side to the African Nations Cup title 14 years ago.

Gili, a former coach of Olympique Marseille and Egypt, served as Michel's assistant at the World Cup and earlier this year when the Ivorians finished runners up at the Nations Cup finals in Egypt.

Troussier, who has coached seven different national teams over the last decade, began his nomadic career in the Ivory Coast — first with ASEC Abidjan and then for a brief spell with the national team in 1993.

The Ivorian Football Federation did not give a deadline for the appointment of a new coach but the country start the qualifying campaign for the 2008 Nations Cup finals in September.

Michel signed a one-year contract with Al Arabi of Qatar at the weekend.—Reuters