Metsu seeks leave of absence to take Al-Ain cash (16.07.2002)
Bruno Metsu has asked Senegal for a ten-month leave of absence to take over at United Arab Emirates club Al Ain.
"I met president Abdoulaye Wade to see how to proceed, how to go there for ten months and come back," said the Frenchman.
The club claim that Metsu has "agreed in principle" to the short-term deal, but wants to return to the Senegalese set-up once it runs out.
Metsu has reportedly been offered £600,000 to coach Al Ain, giving him a monthly salary three times the size of what he would earn with Senegal.
Nevertheless, he is determined to return to the country he took
to the World Cup quarter-finals, not least because he has a Senegalese wife - Daba Ndiaye.
Many of the Senegalese football federation were unaware of Metsu`s move on Thursday night, as he went over their heads to the state president, a man with whom he has "a relationship of mutual confidence".
It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to let him return to his current job at the end of his Al-Ain contract.
Metsu has been widely credited with inspiring the upsurge in Senegalese fortunes that saw them this summer become only the second African side to reach the last eight of the World Cup.
