Most coaches in the lower divisions of the American soccer pyramid would jump at the chance to interview for a managerial position within Major League Soccer.

Then again, most coaches aren’t Giovanni Savarese.

EOS has learned the New York Cosmos boss has turned down the opportunity to interview for the head coaching vacancy at the Houston Dynamo.

According to several well-placed sources, Dynamo President Chris Canetti personally pushed for Savarese as a managerial candidate. The Cosmos boss turned down the offer for an interview citing his commitment to the Cosmos and his desire to “see through” the team’s efforts with the signing of Raul.

The Dynamo’s interest makes sense. With the departing Dom Kinnear, Houston are set on a path towards rebuilding; an area where Savarese has excelled in his still-budding managerial career.

Canetti, who was an assistant general manager with the Metrostars from 2000-2006, has first hand experience seeing Savarese build programs from nothing. While removed by a couple of years from Savarese’s playing days in New York, Canetti did work hand and hand with the Venezuelan striker in 2005 when he was charged with overseeing the team’s youth development program. Savarese’s work set the foundation for the Red Bull Academy; widely considered one of the best youth soccer programs in the nation.

After a contentious departure from the Red Bulls, Savarese landed with the New York Cosmos as their head coach and technical director. Once again, he was tasked with building a program from scratch. In 16 short months, he did just that, leading the club to a Fall Championship trophy and the 2013 Soccer Bowl, all while accumulating an outstanding 20-8-13 record.

According to one source, the Dynamo were “flabbergasted” by the outright rejection. Nevertheless, it does little to deter their search, which is said to be moving on as planned.

EOS reached out to both the Cosmos and Dynamo but failed to receive comment at the time of this report.