Africa Do Away
Can
Sports
With Foreign Coaches?
Reinhard Fabisch
Gilbert Munetsi
U
nder the guidance of Stephen
Keshi, Nigeria, home to the
highest number of African players
in Europe, made a mark worth emulating
at the 2013 African Cup of Nations in
South Africa.
One can be fooled to think that since
the bulk of the ‘Super Eagles’ spend most
of their time with top European coaches,
that can automatically transform into
success at national level. Unfortunately,
that has not been the case, as a glance at
the past history of this populous nation
can reveal.
Twice, they have been to the World Cup
finals with foreign coaches and failed to
make any meaningful progress. First it
was the Dutchman Clemens Westerhof at
USA-94 and then at France-98 under Bora
Mulitinovic. Nothing changed when local
Adegboyega Onigbinde had the final say
at the 2002 finals in Korea/Japan.
So unpredictable are the dynamics of
football which is why it is probably called
the world’s most beautiful game.
Some of the foreign coaches so much
fall in love with Africa to the extend that
they start hopping from one country to
another. One such colourful character is
German Otto Pfitser who first came to
Page 54
Otto Pfitser
Africa in 1972 as coach of the Rwanda.
Pfitser has coached eight different
nations on the continent; Rwanda (1972 76), Upper Volta (1976 - 78), Senegal (1979
- 1982), Ivory Coast (1982 - 85), Zaire
(1985 - 89), Ghana (1989 - 95), Togo (2006)
and Cameroon (2007 - 09).
If he was not on a national assignment,
the German was either in the Middle East
or still in Africa coaching club football.
He has been in charge of Al Zamalek and
El-Masry (Egypt), CS Sfaxien (Tunisia)
and Al-Merrikh (Sudan), among other top
clubs on the continent.
In a career spanning over three decades,
Pfitser is believed to be fluent in more
than 40 dialects as a result of his stay in
Asia, Middle East and Africa. The man
even shunned the job market in his home
country ever since he came to Africa.
Other foreign coaches to have changed
employers regularly on the continent
include the French duo of Henri Michel
and Phillipe Trousier. Both men have
coached different outfits at both club and
national levels.
Trousier has been in charge of Ivory
Coast (1993), Nigeria (1997), Burkina
Faso (1997 - 98), South Africa (1998) and
Morocco (2005) while Michel took charge
of Cameroon (1994), Morocco (1995 2000), Tunisia (2001 - 2002)Ivory Coast
The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine
Rudi Gutendorf
(2004 - 06) and again Morocco (2007.
Save for the Russian Valeri Kuzmyich
Nepomniachi who took Cameroon to
the quarter final stage of the world cup
in 1990, the majority of foreign coaches
have faced an uphill task at the global
competition.
Zimbabwe
after
32
years
of
independence has had its own share of
expatriate coaches. They include Wieslaw
Grabowski (Poland), Ben Koufie ( v????&V???&Bf&?66??B'VF?wWFV?F?&`??vW&????&2GWf???&B?7v?G?W&??B??6?V?V?2vW7FW&??b??WF?W&??G2?????FW&f?V?B?66?F??B??B??6Rf????0??'&???(
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