Osorio declines Honduran offer

Published Feb. 5, 2011 11:00 p.m. ET

foxsports

Juan Carlos Osorio has declined an offer to coach the Honduran national soccer team leading to the qualifying rounds of the 2014 World Cup.

The former Red Bulls coach says he wants to fulfill his promise to coach the champion Colombian club Once Caldas.

He says he tried to persuade Honduras to let him start in June, but the Honduran soccer federation said it needs him sooner. Osorio says it ''hurts'' him to reject the offer. He called it a ''wonderful opportunity but the word I gave to the leaders of Once Caldas weighs more.''

The Honduran federation said in a statement Saturday it has begun looking for a coach.

Osorio coached the New York Red Bulls from 2007 to 2009.