Al Ahli coach Quique Sanchez Flores in line for Monaco job

Dubai: Al Ahli coach Quique Sanchez Flores is a frontrunner to replace Claudio Ranieiri at French Division Two champions-elect AS Monaco, according to reports.

Backed by Russian billionaire Dimitry Ryboloviev, Monaco apparently have €150 million (Dh708 million) to invest in the transfer market this summer, but they need a proven tactician to complete their resurgence.

Former Benfica and Atletico Madrid coach Flores, 48, whose contract at Al Ahli will expire next month, has reached six cup finals in five years with three different clubs. The Spaniard won four of these finals with one – the UAE President’s Cup against Al Shabab – still to play on May 28.

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho and former French national coach Laurent Blanc are said to have pulled out of the running for the post and negotiations for a three-year deal with Flores are now apparently at an advanced stage.

Flores’ unveiling will be made at the Principality’s Stade Louis II in Fontvieille in the coming weeks, according to reports in the Spanish and French press.

Having joined Al Ahli in November 2011 on a six-month contract, Flores won the Etisalat Cup in his first season and led the team to fifth in the Etisalat Pro League. He signed a one-year extension last June and this season his team have reached the President’s Cup final and are second in the league.

However, Flores had hinted at another year’s contract extension and reports suggesting his former Atletico Madrid striker Jose Antonio Reyes would rejoin him at Al Ahli next season, were said to be the strongest indication yet that he would stay.

But the lure of an open purse at Monaco, where the likes of Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao, Paris Saint Germain’s Mamadou Sakho and Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez are all on the wish-list, could prove too enticing.