THE Football Association has asked super-agent Jorge Mendes to help find the next England manager.

In the clearest sign yet that Wembley bosses would consider a foreigner to replace Roy Hodgson, the Portuguese was contacted in the past few days to see if he could identify a potential Three Lions boss.

FA bosses believe Mendes' contact book is so wide and varied that he might be able to find a top candidate to lead England's resurgence who was thought to be out of reach.

Mendes has long-established links with FA vice-chairman David Gill, who is part of the three-man team – along with chief executive Martin Glenn and technical director Dan Ashworth – who will appoint the next manager.

The trio met in Paris last Friday to establish a clear criteria for England's next head coach.

There will also be a full assessment of the disastrous Euro 2016 campaign and a general performance review of the country at major tournaments.

The FA's taskforce have already met with BBC presenter, Gary Lineker, former England stars Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard and Harry Redknapp about the future of the national side.

Redknapp wants a shot at the job and Ferdinand also re-iterated his interest about being involved as a coach.

Predictably the FA are also making it clear that the team must "have a clear identity" under the next manager.

SunSport reported last month how FA bosses spoke to Brendan Rodgers about a possible vacancy before Euro 2016, although Ashworth hoped that England would be successful to allow Hodgson to stay on to oversee the 2018 World Cup campaign.

But it has now emerged that Jose Mourinho was also approached by the FA towards the end of the season to establish his potential availability if Hodgson had to go, while Sam Allardyce and Harry Redknapp are the leading home-grown candidates.

Mourinho, though, was already privately confident of landing the Manchester United job he officially began this week and told the FA he was not an option if the worst did happen.

Gill had a number of dealings with Mendes in his previous role as chief executive at United and knows the Portuguese is one of the game's arch-fixers.

Mendes' managerial clients include Mourinho, former Brazil boss Luis Felipe Scolari - who turned the FA down in 2006 - Aitor Karanka and Carlos Queiroz.

Allardyce, Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle, Steve Bruce and Eddie Howe are potential home-grown options, with Sir Alex Ferguson lobbying strongly for the Sunderland boss.

West Ham chief Slaven Bilic is another who has backers, although the Hammers will fight hard to keep him in East London, while USA boss Jurgen Klinsmann is another alternative.