The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) fired Queiroz on Thursday in the wake of his six-month ban for insulting anti-doping agents and has vowed to replace him before next month's qualifiers at home to Denmark and away to Iceland.
Bento has denied any contact with the FPF so far, but has not distanced himself from the job and is seen by the local media as the strongest candidate as he is not currently coaching at club level and could start immediately.
"He did a great job with limited resources at Sporting and knows the national setup well, having been an important player for Portugal," former international Joao Alves, who coached Bento at Amadora, told Reuters.
"Bento has the right profile and his personality is well-suited to the job," he added.
"I would like Luis (Aragones) to be the coach for his personality, his quality and his experience, but my personal conviction is that national teams are for the players and the coaches of that country, I would prefer a Portuguese," the country's most famous coach, Jose Mourinho, told reporters.
"Obviously he is one of the options, with the advantage of already having done the job before," said Joao Alves, who played with Coelho at Benfica for several years.
