Buenos Aires, Apr 29 (IANS): Jorge Sampaoli is the sole candidate to take over as coach of Argentina's national team, according to Argentine Football Association (AFA) chief Claudio Tapia.

The position fell vacant by the dismissal of Edgardo Bauza earlier this month after a poor run of results, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sampaoli, who guided Chile to victory at the 2015 Copa America, was appointed coach of Spanish top division club Sevilla FC in June last year.

But the Spanish club is understood to be willing to part with the Argentina-born 57-year-old if the AFA pays his 1.5 million euro ($1.63 million) release clause.

"He is the chosen coach. We have to wait for the contractual terms to discuss things with Sevilla.

"We have chosen a coach that has a contract. We want to be respectful and wait because he has a release clause which is once the tournament ends," Tapia told ESPN Argentina.

"We will communicate it to the club and we will sit down and negotiate his departure and release clause. We want things to go well in the final games he has left (Malaga, Real Sociedad, Real Madrid and Osasuna)."

Argentina are currently fifth in the 10-team South America zone World Cup qualifying standings with four games remaining. They have 22 points from 14 matches which include six wins and four draws.

Only the top four teams at the end of the South American qualifying tournament will earn automatic slots to the 2018 World Cup to be held in Russia.

The fifth-ranked side will advance to a play-off against the top nation from Oceania.