Serbian Miodrag Jesic, who appeared favourite to replace Luboslav Penev as CSKA Sofia coach, said on Friday he would stay in his present job with Libyan side Al-Ittihad.
Penev resigned on Wednesday and CSKA said Jesic was close to returning to the 31-times Bulgarian champions who he managed between 2004 and 2006 and won the league title in 2005. The 51-year-old also confirmed he held talks with the Sofia side.
"I've tried to change things (to terminate contract) but it didn't happen," Jesic told novsport.bg. "I wanted so much to come to Bulgaria and win the title with CSKA but I'm staying in Libya."
After the first half of the season, CSKA lie second in the standings, four points behind Litex Lovech.
"It's really a very unpleasant situation," CSKA chairman Dimitar Borisov said. "We'll continue negotiating with the other candidates."
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