Rene Simoes' stock soared yesterday after former Bermuda Football Association (BFA) technical committee executive Richard Calderon threw his weight firmly behind the Brazilian coach, now understood to be among the top candidates for the association's vacant technical director's post.

Earlier this week The Royal Gazette revealed that high-profile coaches such as Simoes, who coached the famous Reggae Boyz to the 1998 World Cup in France, Englishman Paul Mariner and Jamaican-born striker John Barnes were among those having applied for the $125,000 per year position.

As outlined in the BFA's ambitious, multi-million six-year strategic plan, the successful candidate will be presented with the daunting task of overseeing the development of the game at all levels, developing a senior coaching education programme and various national programmes, coach the senior national team as well as developing club and school coaches.

Calderon believes Simoes could be the right man for the job.

"The boy has pedigree and there's no question about it. And as a Bermudian I am even flattered that he would be interested," Calderon said.

As a professional coach for more than 20 years Simoes has worked in Jamaica, Portugal, Trinidad, Qatar, Brazil, Honduras and more recently Iran.

In 1988 he coached Brazil to the South American Youth Championship and at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he coached his country's women's national team to a silver medal.

Simoes has also enjoyed success in Qatar, coaching Al-Rayyan Sports Club to the 1990 league and cup double.

He is perhaps best remembered for his glorious coaching stint with the Reggae Boyz, the first Concacaf member to qualify for world football's premier showpiece.

"If we can afford Simoes I don't think there's a person in this country that would say no," Calderon added. "And I am quite sure every coach in Bermuda would like to have Simoes work here and I wish him luck."

Former national coach and Calderon's twin brother, Robert, also rated Simoes highly but implored the BFA to explore their options thoroughly before recruiting the individual best suited to see out the association's long-term vision.

"If we are trying to pull this game that is in terrible, terrible shape at the moment, then you cannot afford to make the mistake of hiring the wrong person. Obviously Simoes' results as a coach are impressive but one of the things we need to be conscious of is that whoever comes in will have a real responsibility of developing the game from the grassroots level," he said.

"The next technical director's dominant experience would ideally be setting up academies, developing youth coaches and ensuring the infrastructure of the domestic programme is such that you can develop tomorrow's good players and coaches. And it is very critical that the person who comes actually leaves behind qualified, capable coaches because that way the work can continue.

"But if they don't then we are not spending our money wisely because the results we are looking for are probably going to resonate in many, many years to come. And I would like to think we are looking for the results domestically to get us eventually to the level of international play we were once capable of achieving.

"I believe this guy (Simoes) is truly a capable national coach and probably a capable technical director, but we can't just look to the name of someone who has done something fanstastically well as a senior national coach because that's not what we are looking for. And you have to get what you are looking for and know before you start looking, what it is you are trying to accomplish."