YANGON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian coach Marcos Antonio Falopa will return to Myanmar this month and extend contract with the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF), local media reported Tuesday.

    Falopa, who returned to Brazil on leave a few days after the 24th SEA Games, will come back to Myanmar within two weeks and sign one year contract with much more salary, the Olympic sports journal quoted the MFF as saying.

    Meanwhile, the Myanmar football team had improved much and could play systematically during the Falopa's reign, finishing runners-up in the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand in December 2007 and conceding three losses in last year's two tournaments, the 39th Merdeka football tournament in August and the 24th SEA Games football tournament in December, an earlier report of the Olympic sports journal said.

    Myanmar will compete in AFC Challenge Cup, Merdeka and ASEAN Championship football tournaments in 2008.

    The Myanmar U-23 team lacked a foreign coach for nearly one and a half year since the 23rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in December2005 when the Bulgarian coach Ivan Kolev was sacked for the Myanmar U-23 team was eliminated in the group-stage.

    The MFF signed one-year contract with Falopa, who arrived here in April 2007, with a salary of 6,000 US dollar per month.

    Marcos Antonio Falopa, 58, is a technical director of the Brazil Coach Football Federation and had worked as a technical director in European, African, Asian and Latin American countries.

    Falopa, who achieved the Brazilian football master degree in 1975-76 and obtained the UEFA' coach (A) license in 1989, coached as a technical director for the South African national team from 2002 to 2004.

    In the Myanmar football history, the country hired foreign coaches only from the European countries up to 2005.

    Myanmar, stands at 155th based on the Federation of International Football (FIFA) ranking for January 2008, jumping two ranks from last year's 157th.

    With a glorious history in Asian soccer, Myanmar's national senior team had won five times ASEAN champions from 1965 to 1973 and claimed the Asian Games title in 1966 and 1970.