Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) President Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has reportedly dropped Mario Gomez from being considered for the national team head coach post.
This news came after Mario Gomez spoke out about not having asked for a higher salary during the contract negotiation with FAM.
“I was informed that Gomez had denied asking for a higher salary. We offered him US$25,000 (RM110,841) but he asked for US$45,000 (RM199,540),” Tunku Ismail said in a posting on FAM’s Facebook fanpage.
“Isn’t he asking for more than what we have offered? No problem, we will look for another individual who really wants to be Malaysia’s coach.”
Mario Gomez is the former coach of Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), which is owned by Tunku Ismail.
He was supposed to replace Ong Kim Swee, who had been appointed to coach the national Under -22 squad.
Kedah coach Tan Cheng Hoe will instead take the helm at the Malaysia national team.
However, many believed that Tan’s appointment was made to hurt Kedah’s chances of winning the Malaysia Super League ahead of JDT.