Look, Germany used the long standing Jurgen
Klinsman’s assistant, Joachim Loew as head coach over two Fifa World Cups, seeing
his project to fruition. Brazil appointed Dunga as a successor to his
predecessor, well almost. Filipe Scolari replaced Mano Menezes whose short
stinct followed that of the former captain after the elimination from the 2010
Fifa World Cup. Dunga had replaced Scolari prior to that.
If the Big Phil was not good enough then, what had changed?
After that Dunga dismissal for poor performance, what has since changed? Time
will tell, but among the 200 milion football crazy population, is there no one
with the ability to take them to another level? I thought such impulsive
behaviour was patented by Africans.
Given that South Africa will be announcing their own
coach at the weekend, one wonders who that lucky guy is. Danny Jordaan speaks
the language and I have always admired him and took him as one who walks that
talk. SAFA never gave an official list of candidates under considerations and
speculation is awash with foreigners.
That can only be security for failure to win the
2018 Russia Fifa World Cup as the championship is ever won by teams with indigenous
coaches. In any case, the majority of nations enjoyed better success with home
grown coaching stuff.
South Africa’s own records tell the tale, notably
the only AFCON victory of 1996 under Clive Barker. Up north, Zimbabwe hired and
paid handsome sums to expats, but it took Sunday Marimo in 2004 and Charles
Mhlauri in 2006 to take the Warriors to AFCON.
Further north, the same happened with Malawi.
TheFlames qualified for
AFCON in 1984 under Henry Moyo and with Kinnah Phiri in 2010. Ghana has won the
tournament four times, with a local coach guiding the team on all the four
occasions.
The most successful
football team in the AFCON history is Egypt who won the trophy seven times,
mainly with local coaches. Ali Hassan Shehata did so thrice in succession from
2006, 2008 until 2010 when a foreign coach I regarded highly took them to the
doldrums. The list of successful stories is endless.
What then makes
the non-African coaches attractive given their poor record? They train in the
same countries and do the courses that the Africans attend. The course contents
are the same and many do not outperform local coaches in these courses anyway.
There is a
school of thought that players offer greater respect to foreigners,
particularly whites. If true, it means the administrators hiring these coaches
subscribe to the same mentality. My observation has been that they are revered
by the bosses and whatever these coaches say or need goes. Little attention is
given to the requirements of locals. That attitude eats away the respect the
players have for the coach.
Players need
someone knowledgeable. Their confidence in their coach lies nowhere but in the
oozing proficiency of the professional. If the president and secretary of the
association take their man lightly, so will the players. As much as the
salaries are a confidential issue, the players know. The peanuts that the
African coaches get erode any respect the players have for the coach.
One muted idea
of having a foreign coach boarded around the respect and fear the African
referees have for the whites. If the match officials are that stupid, it could
be better to import them from overseas. During a final qualifier between
Cameroon and Zimbabwe in Younde, the year 1994, one Reinhard Fabisch got
incensed by the obvious biased officiating and tore a $100 bill in-front of the
commissioner, earning himself a hefty fine coupled with a suspension.
His white skin
could not even earn a draw that Zimbabwe needed to kiss the USA ’94 tournament.
The continent has always been encouraged to emancipate itself from mental
slavery as none but itself can free its mind. However, the destruction of its
football has been its quest for glory and its poverty.
There is always
doubt over the quality of coaches who come to Africa from Europe. They do not make
the cut in the leagues that matter, the league where the best of African
players ply their trades. It is in these leagues, where the African coaches who
believe in their abilities, break the banks and pay for the tuition and flights
to acquire the same knowledge, and then come to Africa and remain redundant.
Locally, in
Gavin Hunt, Roger De Sa and Pitso Mosemane, Bafana would be well catered for.
The South Africa media usually plot the downfall of local coaches, the same way
the English destroy their own Three Lions. There are a few more South Africans
with the ability to take charge of the team, provided they are armed with the
authority to control every detail of the team by the association.
If the continent’s
best players can fit in any team in the world, so can the coaches. The world is
not ready, and will never be ready to afford an African coach a Manchester
United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus job. There shall never be a time
in the history of human life when Shakes Mashaba, Riccardo Mannet, Norman
Mapeza or Jamhuri Kihwelo will be considered to coach England or Spain. Never.
African
associations must bring in extremely qualified and knowledgeable coach
educators from abroad to uplift the upcoming coaching and desist from their
reliance on the expat coaches. Given that coaches are the most recyclable
items on the planet, it may be the joy to pull people down, as results have
nothing to do with denying locals opportunities as head national coaches.
