Owen da Gama and Kosta Papic are favourites to take over as head coach of the Lesotho national team, Sowetan has been informed.

Both coaches are among the 106 who have applied for the head coach position with Lesotho Football Association (LFA) currently busy with the shortlist.

According to our sources in Lesotho, Da Gama will be one of the coaches to be shortlisted soon to replace Thabo Senong, who has since joined Sekhukhune United.

“They are interested in him as he is one of the coaches who applied together with Papic,” a source said. “They are part of 106 coaches who applied and they are busy with the shortlists.”

Da Gama, however, was reluctant to comment and said he was not aware that he applied as everything is being done by his agent Moira Tlhagale.

“My agent is the one who is currently looking for teams and I’m not sure if she did apply or not,” Da Gama told Sowetan yesterday. “I have so many things that I’m doing at the moment. If you sit down and do nothing, it is not good. I’m keeping busy with so many things.”

Asked if there have been any offers for him since leaving TS Galaxy last year, Da Gama said there were talks but nothing serious. “There were talks, but teams were not coming out. I want something concrete, so I left everything to my agent to deal with.

“I don’t know what’s the latest so far and if you check with her, she might give you an update.”

Tlhagale and LFA secretary-general Mokhosi Mohapi could not be reached for comment yesterday. Mohapi did confirm to a local radio station that Da Gama is one of the coaches who applied.

Da Gama has been without a job since he was fired by Galaxy in September last year following a run of poor results.