Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and current Blues coach Guus Hiddink have emerged as managerial targets for the Indonesia national team.
Indonesia's youth and sports minister Imam Nahrawi confirmed he wants to "awaken the fighting spirit of the players" after Fifa last year suspended the national team from the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers because of interference from the government in the domestic league.
Mr Nahrawi revealed that Mourinho, who remains out of work since being sacked by Chelsea in December, is his first-choice candidate but that his wages could prove a stumbling block in Indonesia, ranked 185th in the world, landing the Portuguese coach.
"This plan has been discussed with President Joko Widodo and the Chairman of the Indonesian Olympics Committee, Erick Thohir, even though this won’t be easy," Mr Nahrawi said.
"Our national team head coach must be a foreigner, accompanied with our local coaches as his assistant."
Mr Nahrawi also revealed Thohir, who is the president of Mourinho's former team Inter Milan, advised him to look into the option of trying to hire current Chelsea manager Hiddink should he fail to land the Portuguese tactician.
"When I asked Erick, Mourinho's salary is about Rp250 billion [equivalent to £13million or €16.5million] per year," Mr Nahrawi added.
"The motivation is that we want to awaken the fighting spirit of the players. If Mr. Erick said not Jose Mourinho, but Guus Hiddink instead."
Hiddink will leave Chelsea at the end of the current campaign after being appointed as Mourinho's short-term successor in December.
