Tom Saintfiet was born March 29, 1973 in Belgium and coached the Namibian national team, where he beat Comoros and Malawi and drawing Lesotho in the 2008 COSAFA in South Africa. He played football between 1983 to 1997 before becoming a football manager at 24, becoming the youngest manager in Belgian football.A holder of UEFA A Pro License, Saintfiet coached in several countries including Qatar where he was assistant club coach and then Under-17 coach which qualified for FIFA World Cup, Germany, Faroe Islands finishing 2nd in the 1st Division league, and Holland teams junior sides and was 1st Division Technical Director. He was Finnish Premier League club Rovaniemi coach before going to Namibia.
Saintfiet, who holds Sports Psychology and Econimic Psychology qualifications, was also an advisor for the Kazakhstan Football Federation and worked as a TV football Analyst for Belgian Television and a translator for the DFB.
Is this the best for Zimbabwe Warriors?
he is more welcome, he must feel at home. we have the talent but we r broke as the nation.
ReplyDeletehe only needs the gud administration frm zifa and our support will then add xtra player in the field.
look frm wat Nyasha Mekwishi, Musona, Sweswe, Jambo we have young talented boys who may add a grd for us.
we still have veterans such as nyandoro, nengomasha, kapini, murambondoro who kept a clean shit during opening games of absa lig. so as far as talent is concerned we shrp we only miss the resources.
gud lucky to my beloved nation. may almighty pour mo rain of luck.
Dont worry he came cheap and knowing Zifa, it don't matter as long as they have a foreign head doing jack. So long, so long Zim football has always fallen short of good administrators.
ReplyDeleteHayi ah! Izinto zakithi bantu. We just pick anything cheap stuff and waste money on it. Ibaccosa. Dont we have our own good coaches? In all the two times we qualified for the nations cup it was our home coaches. What's this now?
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ReplyDeleteAmen to that. For our resources, his CV is good enough.
ReplyDeleteI hope he doesn't compete with our current club foreign coaches. He must just produce results.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he is the missing link of Warriors football. It's a maybe. Look out for the analysis of this choice on this blog tomorrow. Taking your point, maybe he is here to fail so a local coach can be appointed. As you say, local coaches have better records and of course get paid less. ZIFA are loaded.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe i am not impressed by his cv. I dont feel he suits our expectation for a Foreign Coach. He seems to be ordinary. 12 years coaching experience without any Honours. Is this the best for Zimbabwe? He didn't achieve anything with Namibia and we expect miracles. We are good at shooting at ourselves and we are at it again. I thought after the draw at Liberia we had 75% chances of 2012 but with new coach its 25% chances.
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ReplyDeleteI feel this appointment is an insult to Zim football. Clearly this guy is a nobody in football. His CV is pathetic. He cannot be better than Mapeza, Chunga or Rahman. When will Zifa start realising that a person doesn't become a good coach by virtue of being Brazilian, Belgian or English?This is an insult to our football. Mapeza started very well. He has played in the champions league. I remember his Galatasary against Man U and even Cantona appreciated his efforts. He has won our league with Monos, he knows our players well and he speaks good English, Shona and Ndebele. Who is this Tom guy? This is simply another Valinhos. A big failure! This guy coached what, a Finnish club? Come on Zifa, are we that poor? Anyway what do you expect from Zifa. They fix matches and probably someone was paid by this guy to give him the job. Damn fools.
ReplyDeleteGerald, this to me this is not a Zimbabwean problem. It is an African self-colonisation mentality that I fail to comprehend. Even if some of these guys came to me with result guarantees, empowering our own will still be the way to go. I will be very naive and tell the world that at this moment in time, failing with my own efforts and resources will be preferred to my success in 'borrowed robes'.
ReplyDeleteLocal associations prefer expat coaches who they pay truckfuls of money and they produce nothing. Our own coaches have brought successes yet they were paid peanuts. The day we will pay African coaches mores salaries than expats demand, is the day we will taste success after success. I feel your sentiments. Maybe this guy will the one Zimbabwe need. Maybe.
This is a joke. We have been through this road before and ZIFA is refusing to learn. This guy was sacked by Namibia and this should be enough to conclude he is incompetent.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that he costs less to maintain as you know the motherbody has no sponsor. What would have been the solution and who do you think should get the job?
ReplyDeleteAs chairman of zisca i disagreed with composition of the technical committee in which i took up with B Moyo and Methembe but they assured me that I and Nelson Matongorere will play a part. When nothing was happening i decided to meet the members. I thought they will see the light, thus I first met Gumede, Ben Moyo and Board member (finance) Kasu. I talked to the President C Dube and wrote email to President suggesting G Homela, F Mkwesha, myself, N Matongorere, Ben Moyo and Methembe to form the committee, but I was shotdown. I raised the issue in the Zifa Council but got very little support from other councillors. Accompanied by Chairman of Zjfl, Zivanai Chiyangwa I went to meet President, Gumede, Ben and Mavis Gumbo to complain that Ben was not consulting me and Matongorere. Through my consultation with people like Matongorere, Homela and Madinda, we had agreed that Mapeza will coach Warriors, assisted by Peter Ndlovu and Chitembwe and under 23 by Madinda. That is why he applied for under-23 post and Mapeza went for Warriors, but then Ben and his committee never consulted us such that i knew about the foreign coach from press. As Zisca we feel we have been let down by Ben Moyo who seems to be misrepresenting coaches in the board. If we don't have money to pay a highly acclaimed coach, it's better we go for local. I wish to see Agent Sawu, Adam Ndlovu, Mapeza and Madinda playing a part in national teams structures. The board is the one which is there to shape the destiny of football so we will finaly live with whatever decision they will make. We feel the sooner we pass this phase the better so that we focus on the upcoming game which is crucial for afcon 2012.
ReplyDeleteI thank you Bheki for enlightening us about the what you did on this issue and I acknowledge the unfortunate situation you face if things are done without enough consultation. I hope you will be at liberty to shed more light on further developments in your capacity as the Chairman of ZSCA, and in your individual capacity. I agree with you that at this point, the best is to look ahead and prepare for the next assignment for the success of the team. Knowing you personally, I have no doubt you are pushing as much as you can for the development of the game though you are facing a lot of obvious challenges that you mention on this comment. I am looking forward to your constituency coming forth with their own comments and opinions on this platform. All the best and God bless.
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