Karl Sheppard and Ciaran Kilduff are in contention for the vacant Athlone Town job.
Mirror Sport can reveal that the former title-winning strikers for Cork City and Dundalk respectively will soon be interviewed for the post.
And it is possible that they could work together on the same management team.
Once team-mates at Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne, Sheppard and Kilduff are prominent on a shortlist of candidates to succeed Martin Russell.
Russell parted company with the First Division’s bottom club a fortnight ago and Dermot Lennon - Athlone’s Director of Football - has been in temporary charge.
Sheppard - who also played for Reading and Galway United - retired in January 2021 after being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis.
Last year, he was appointed to Portmarnock’s managerial team and was manager of Munster Senior League side Avondale United before that, while playing for Cork City.
In 2019, Avondale were drawn to play Drogheda United in the FAI Cup but Sheppard had to miss the game because Cork City were playing Cabinteely on the same night.
Kilduff, 33, won the League of Ireland twice with Dundalk and once with Shamrock Rovers. He also scored important goals for the Lilywhites in Europe.
He is currently assistant manager of Leinster Senior League side Maynooth University Town, who made it to the semi-finals of this season’s FAI Intermediate Cup.
