By Mark Gleeson BBC Sport

Rafael is wanted by Angola

The national coaches of Angola and the Cape Verde Islands are heading to Europe in search of new talent from second-generation players competing there.

Angola's Ismael Kurtz and his counterpart from the Cape Verde Islands, Alexandre Alhinho, are both seeking to bolster their squads ahead of next month's start of the African qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.

Angola are due to play Chad while Cape Verde have a date with Swaziland.

Kurtz, who has already incorporated several new finds from Portugal in his side, now wants to expand his search for the offspring of Angolans who left the country at the time of independence, or during the country's long civil war, and settled in Europe.

He will visit Portugal to look at the new Benfica signing Guto, who has already attracted rave reviews in the Portuguese press.

He will then travel to Germany and France where other players of Angolan extraction are based.

Kurtz's top priority will be Nando Rafael, the striker who plays for Bundesliga outfit Hertha Berlin.

But any return to Angola is likely to be complicated by the fact that Rafael has refugee status in Europe and would likely lose it if he were to return to play for his country.

Alhinho, meanwhile, is seeking to persuade several Portuguese-based players to make themselves available for the two-legged tie against the Swazis.