SYDNEY – Australia target Louis van Gaal has played down suggestions that he will take over as the Socceroos coach because his chances of winning the World Cup would be limited.

Van Gaal, who won the UEFA Champions League with Ajax Amsterdam and back-to-back Spanish league titles with Barcelona, has been included on a short-list of top foreign coaches lined up to take the post in the aftermath of the AFC Asian Cup finals.

New Football Federation Australian chief executive Ben Buckley has recently returned home after a fact-finding mission in Europe which involved meetings with several candidates for the job.

Van Gaal is believed to be among those who met with Buckley, but the Dutchman – who missed out on taking his own nation to the finals in Japan and South Korea in 2002 - played down speculation linking him with the position.

“I’m always interested in a very good job and I think coaching the Australia team is a very exciting job because I have failed with the Netherlands in 2002 and I want to participate in the world championships, because I have won everything else,” he told SBS television in Australia.

“I have also other options and I have to decide. I want to win, always, and I think it’s not possible to win with the Australian team at the world championships. It’s exciting to do that but I want to win the championship and there are other countries at a higher level than the Australian team is now.”

Graham Arnold is currently acting as the Socceroos interim coach and he will take the team to the finals of the AFC Asian Cup, where they have been drawn to face co-hosts Thailand, Oman and Iraq in Group A of the continental championship.

Arnold took over from Guus Hiddink, who qualified the Australians for the World Cup in Germany last year, the first time the team had reached the finals in 32 years.

Hiddink steered the team to the second round, where they narrowly lost to eventual champions Italy thanks to a late Francesco Totti penalty and van Gaal realises that his compatriot has set the bar high for whoever takes on the job.

“The level now in Australia is not as high like Argentina or Spain so if I sign for Australia then I know it will be difficult to be the next world champion,” he said.

“But the ambition is to do better than Guus Hiddink did, but that’s difficult because I believe Hiddink did a marvellous job.

“There are many good players in Australia but I think, always, a good base is very important so I think it’s very good that there is now a professional championship in Australia but we have to wait for a longer time for the development of the players.”