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Sharuko On Saturday
IF Rudi Gutendorf had lived to this day, he would have been earmarking his 100th birthday in just two years’ time.
He would have joined a very small exclusive group of footballers who lived to celebrate their 100th birthdays.
They include Englishman Reg Beresford and Jaroslav Chana of the Czech Republic.
His countryman, Ferdinand Fabra, who coached Finland at the 1936 Summer Olympics, also lived to celebrate his century.
He was 101 years-old when he died, on December 22, 2007.
Gutendorf would have celebrated his 100th year on August 30, 2026.
The coach, who was born in the year that Highlanders was established in 1926, died on September 13, 2019.
He was 93.
He left a legacy of having coached on every continent which helped him get a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
His first coaching job came in 1953, at the age of 27, and his last one came exactly 50 years later, as coach of the Samoa Under-23 team, in 2003.
Nine years earlier, in 1994, Gutendorf arrived in this country.
He was hired to fill the void created by the suspension of Reinhard Fabisch, amid the chaos that greeted the end of the Dream Team project in Yaounde, the previous year.
He was 68 when he arrived here.
By then he had coached in more than 25 countries and the Warriors, used to the all-action approach of Fabisch, struggled to adjust to his laboured and laid-back approach.
Privately, many of them spoke of how his coaching methods were old fashioned, which was probably understandable for a man just starting his 41st year as a professional coach.
The Warriors to match the standards they had set for themselves during the Dream Team era and, while a 4-1 destruction of Cameroon was a high point, losing four points to Malawi was a reminder of how the train had gone off the rails.
Our cause was not helped by the withdrawal of Lesotho, after we had taken six points from them, and the decision by the majority of our best players to boycott the trip to Kinshasa after the outbreak of Ebola in the DRC.
The makeshift team, which went to represent us, shipped in five goals and the mission to try and qualify for the ’96 Nations Cup in South Africa ended under that avalanche of goals.
It wasn’t a surprise to anyone that after his unsuccessful stint with the Warriors, Gutendorf wasn’t a priority to any serious football playing nation save for a four-month contract as coach of Rwanda in 1999.
Ironically, Rwanda is one of the teams in our 202^ World Cup qualifiers and it’s fair to say that they have undergone quite a transformation since those days when they could turn to people like Gutendorf to coach them.
Back then, the Rwandese national team was making headlines not for topping their World Cup qualifying group but for the decision by eight of the national team players to abandon camp and seek asylum in Belgium.
After his stint in Rwanda, Gutendorf closed his lengthy coaching adventure with a low-profile job as the Samoa Under-23 coach in 2003 and timed his exit to perfection – exactly 50 years after his first coaching job.
The Gutendorf experiment failed, and it laid the foundation for the Warriors’ stunning decline in the immediate aftermath of Fabisch’s departure until Sunday Chidzambwa arrested the rot and took them to their maiden AFCON finals.
Somehow, the football gods made sure that AFCON ticket was secured in the same year that Gutendorf was ending his football crusade as if this was some sign of the end of the past and the beginning of the future.
Remarkably, exactly thirty years after the horrible Gutendorf experiment, our football leaders appear to be moving towards that same path in their quest to hire a substantive coach for the Warriors.
TIME HAS LEFT SCHAFER BEHIND
This week ZIFA, whose leader Lincoln Mutasa shockingly revealed that he has not attended a single PSL game since he was ushered into the hot seat by FIFA a year ago, revealed their shortlist of five coaches for the Warriors job.
It has taken them a whole year to get to this point where they can come up with a list of the five men from whom they will pick the substantive coach of the Warriors.
But, for an association whose CEO could not name even one player from either Black Rhinos or Scottland, even though these Division One players are registered directly her association, we have to give them credit that, at least, they managed to know that the guys on the shortlist are real football coaches.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if these guys at ZIFA had come up with Mr Bean on their shortlist of five coaches because that is the level of incompetence that we now find in our football leadership.
There has been quite some excitement, on the domestic football scene, since the names of these coaches were revealed by Zimpapers Sport and were later confirmed by ZIFA this week.
I can understand the excitement because we are a football community that last had a substantive coach a long time ago.
So, anyone who comes along is bound to ignite some form of excitement among us.
The name which has been trending, since the announcement, has been Winfried Schafer – the German Silver Fox whose impressive CV also shows that he won the AFCON with Cameroon.
Some Warriors fans have already begun to see some similarities between Schafer and Hugo Broos, another coach who won AFCON with Cameroon, and has revived Bafana Bafana since he took over as their gaffer.
It’s worth mentioning that both coaches are from the same generation – Schaffer is 74 and Broos is 72.
For me, there is a huge difference between the two coaches and using their AFCON success stories as the basis for the hiring of Schaffer, the way our neighbours did with Broos, will be a faulty and suicidal experiment for us.
Why?
Broos won AFCON just seven years ago while Schafer won the same tournament 22 years ago in 2002.
After leaving Cameroon as an AFCON winner, Broos returned home to Belgium, where he has won the Coach of the Year gong four times and became the sports director at Knowledge Musona’s former club Oostende.
After leaving Cameroon as an AFCON winner, it’s important for us to see how Schafer’s career panned out.
He spent most of his time in the Gulf coaching clubs like Al Ahli Dubai, Al Ain Clu and Baniyas SC in the United Arab Emirates.
He had a stint as Thailand national team coach, hardly a job which any serious coach will move around carrying it as a badge of honour, and coached a club side there called Muang Thon United.
He went to Iran and coached Esteghlal and had a stint in Azerbaijan where he coaches FC Baku.
THE REGGAE BOYZ, THE ALTERCATION
There was some success when he arrived in Jamaica as the national team coach when he led them to victory in the Caribbean Championships and a win over the United States in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
But failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup led to intense criticism of the coach and a sequence of poor results led to frequent battles with the Jamaican media.
Things came to a head when he was involved in an altercation with a Jamaican journalist at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, as Jamaica arrived home after a 0-2 defeat to Haiti, ended his association with the Reggae Boyz.
As the football world’s focus turned to Qatar, ahead of the historic 2022 World Cup, Schaffer moved there and joined local side Al-Khor in January 2021.
The following season, amid the World Cup party, Al-Khor suffered a severe decline and after a poor start, which saw them go NINE games without a win, Schaffer was FIRED.
It marked the first time Al-Khor have been relegated.
In January this year, Schafer was named coach of Iranian side Sanat Naft.
They were one point above relegation, when the German coach arrived, and by the end of the season they were relegated after the finished bottom of the table.
For the record, Sanat Naft are sponsored by the Iranian national petroleum company.
Now, there lies my concern that this is a coach who is generating glowing headlines here because of events from his distant past – 22 years ago to be precise.
No one is talking about his recent past, which now includes leading teams to relegation in the Qatar and Iran top-flight leagues.
No one is talking about his recent past which shows that in his last job in Qatar, his team Al-Khor did not win any of their opening 12 league matches in which they drew six and lost six on their way to relegation.
No one is talking about his recent past, which shows that from the time he took over at Sanat Naft in January, the team played 15 games, won just TWO, drew four and lost NINE, on their way to relegation.
No one is talking about his recent past, which shows that he now appeals to such clubs like Al-Khor and Sanat Naft, which have NEVER won the league championships in their home countries.
Somehow, the people at ZIFA believe that a coach, who has seen his two most recent clubs in Qatar and Iran being relegated could be good enough to take us to the AFCON finals.
The Iranians and Qataris, who share the same dream as us to qualify for the World Cup, didn’t consider the current Schafer to be good enough to take charge of their national teams.
To them, he was a coach who is only good enough to coach their weakest sides which he led to relegation.
Now, we are still being blinded by his achievements of 2002, in charge of a team which is always one of the favourites for the AFCON title, when the reality is that things have changed, and time has left Schafer behind.
This buzz about Schafer has to end, he is just another Gutendorf in the making, he is now an expert in fighting critical journalists, and his past should not fool us.
Instead, the other candidates, especially the younger ones, are better than Schafer who is getting all the publicity.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle. Come on Chegutu Pirates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zaireeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Text Feedback: 0772545199, WhatsApp: 0772545199, E-mail: robsharuko@gmail,com, [email protected]
You can also interact with me on the ZTV football programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika on Wednesdays
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