Japan head coach Zico is aiming to coach a European club after the World Cup Finals, according to Japanese Football Association president Saburo Kawabuchi.

“Zico told me he wants to serve as head coach at a club in Europe after the World Cup. He may have developed a taste for the job of coaching while in Japan,” Kawabuchi told Japanese media.

The Japan FA chief said he met on Thursday with the 53-year-old Brazilian legend, who is a veteran of three World Cup Finals, to inform him that the association would shortly start looking for his replacement.

Zico, who has been involved in Japanese football for the last 15 years first as a player and then coach, has insisted that he would quit as Japan's national coach after the World Cup.

“I think he has come to realize the joy of coaching,” Kawabuchi said. “I told him we will start preparations to list up candidates for his replacement. He said we need not to hold anything back because of him.”

Zico took over the job after Frenchman Philippe Troussier guided Japan to the last-16 in the 2002 World Cup Finals which they co-hosted with South Korea. He also guided Japan to their third Asian Cup championship in 2004.

Zico first went to play in Japan in 1991 and helped launch Japan's first professional league, the J-League, in 1993. He retired as a player with the Kashima Antlers in 1994 and then became their technical adviser.

The former midfielder at Brazilian club Flamengo, who also played for Italy's Serie-A side Udinese, told the German soccer magazine Kicker last month that he was interested in coaching a club, preferably in Italy, Spain or Germany.

Kawabuchi said last year he might consider asking Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to lead Japan's national side, if the Frenchman's annual salary could be lowered from its current level, estimated at some £2.5 million ($4million).

But Wenger, who has already coached in Japan and guided J-League side Nagoya Grampus Eight to the Emperor's Cup victory in 1996, is said to be fully committed to Arsenal until his current contract expires in 2008 and is unlikely to be tempted away from the English Premiership side.

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