Mark Wade has confirmed the Bermuda Football Association hope to name a new senior men’s coach by the end of this month and have not ruled out appointing an overseas applicant.

The association have been searching for a successor to Kyle Lightbourne since mid-May after his contract, and that of his assistant, Ray Jones, were not renewed after five years and a disappointing Nations League campaign.

Wade, president of the BFA, revealed more than 50 applicants have signalled an interest in the role, with the first round of interviews concluded this week.

“We’ll be making a decision on what the second round of interviews will look like,” said Wade, speaking to Bermuda Broadcasting.

“We’re not sure if it will be three or four [applicants], we’ll have to see. Just based off the interviews we’ve had, we didn’t want to limit ourselves. We’ll be going through all of the interviews and then go from there with the next round to be done.

“Our target is to be able to name the new coach by the 31st of this month and so we’re still on target to do that. We’ve had some very interesting applicants, highly qualified, and so it is an exciting time.”

As well as interest from locally-based applicants, Wade also revealed that coaches from the United States and Europe had also applied.

Consideration is being given to overseas applicants, who if successful would mark the first foreign coach to take up the role since German Burkhard Ziese held the position between 1994 to 1997.

“The list of candidates was varied, very much so,” added Wade, who spoke of Bermuda’s heightened reputation in world football since making an historic debut at the Concacaf Gold Cup in 2019.

“We have some Bermudians in the mix as well as from as far as the United Kingdom, Holland and the United States, so there is a good mixture or experience and also cultures.

“There are also different levels of qualifications. We’ve asked for A-licence or Pro-licence, which is the highest you can have and so that is the level of applicant we would like to see.

“It’s going to be a big step for us going this route. We haven’t had a foreign coach in charge of the men’s senior team for a very long time and so there is a possibility of that, but we may also stay with a coach here in Bermuda.

“Football is on the rise in Bermuda and people are aware of the success that we have had, particularly in 2019.”