Hiddink to Ivory Coast?

Guus Hiddink has a spare couple of weeks, so it makes sense that someone would hire him to lead their team to South Africa 2010.

That someone appears to be Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast confirms they are in talks with Hiddink -- who failed to get Russia to the upcoming World Cup.

But the Dutchman has had plenty of World Cup success before, which is why countries are lining up to hire him.

In 1998, Hiddink got Netherlands to the semifinals at France.

In 2002, he took South Korea to the semifinals.

In 2006, he led Australia to the second round.

In 2008, he got Russia to the Euro semifinals.

So Russia bombing out of the European qualifying for South Africa ... not exactly a career-wrecker for Guus.

He is under contract to Russia through the World Cup, and after that he will take over Turkey.

Presumably, he (or the Ivory Coast) will have to buy out the rest of his contract with Russia, and maybe even pay some sort of premium, if the Russians bargain hard.

Ivory Coast may be more inclined to do whatever it takes to bring in Guus, considering their coachless team was knocked around by South Korea, 2-0, at a neutral site in London. Not a good result for a team most people were touting as the most likely African team to make a long run this summer.

Look for it to happen, if Guus can escape the Russia contract maybe two months early.