According to various media service reports, Simoes was among several well known applicants in line to take over the position to coach the Reggae Boyz, but the man who guided the nation to their first ever World Cup finals in France 1998, says he never applied for the post.

"I would like to clarify that I didn't apply to the post," Simoes was quoted as saying in the Jamaica Gleaner, in response to an article in local newspapers over the weekend. "It was Mr Boxhill (Crenston) who called me in Iran to discuss the matter.

"I told him that it would be with great joy that I would accept the invitation, but after January 2007. I have a contract until December 2006 with the Iran Football Federation and the Olympic Committee Association," he added.

Simoes, who also had a stint with Trinidad and Tobago, was, however, quick to admit that an application for the post would not have downgraded his career status, but he wanted to set the record straight.

"I'm not saying applying would make me look with less value because after the Reggae Boyz '98, the list of coaches interested in working in Jamaica is so big and makes me very proud of that," he said.

Boxhill says his piece on the matter

Meanwhile, Boxhill, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) said he was contacted several times by a local friend of Simoes with requests to hear out his former coaching buddy.

Boxhill said he already had his shortlist of coaches on paper, which apparently didn't include the Brazilian, but "out of respect", he said, he offered to listen to what Simoes had to say.

"Over a two weeks period Simoes' very good friend Neville Bell called me not less than five times saying that Rene would like to speak with me and, as a matter of fact, Rene had asked him to get a feel of the atmosphere in Jamaica from the general public and the JFF," Boxhill said.

"Because I had my short list, I ignored the discussion. But Neville convinced me to hear what he had to say. Out of respect, I spoke to him and he said to me that Jamaica was looking for a coach and he was interested, but he was not available and was going to Brazil the following day and if we were interested I should contact him (there).

"That was the last discussion we had. I did not contact him in Brazil and have not spoken to him since. I don't know if that is what he means when he says he was contacted by the JFF," he added.

In the meantime Jamaican-born former England international John Barnes, England's world-class coach Glen Hoddle and Argentinean 2006 World Cup coach Jose Pekerman, are a few of the big names currently on the JFF's shortlist of coaches to take over the vacant  job.