Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
NOMADIC Dutch coach Hendrik Pieter de Jongh has penned a deal with Castle Lager Premier Soccer League champions FC Platinum after failing to agree terms with Highlanders.
According to sources at the Zvishavane-based side, Pure Platinum Play will become the 48-year-old mentor’s 23rd football team to coach in a career spanning some 29 years that began as a 20-year-old after his playing career ended prematurely due to injury.
“De Jongh is on his way to Zvishavane as our coach. Everything has been agreed and he will be officially unveiled in January when he returns from holiday. Remember Lizwe Sweswe was acting and he did really well, but it was felt that he was still green and could learn a few things from the European,” said the source.
According to De Jongh’s CV, his first coaching job was with the RKCWaalwijk’s Under-14 side in 1990. He stayed there up to 1994 and was in charge of the team’s 18 -23-year age group.
He held many coaching posts in his native country before moving to Moldova to take charge of that country’s Under-21 side between 2012-13.
His first dance with African football was in 2014, as head coach of AFC Leopards in Kenya, leading them to the final of the Cecafa Cup in Sudan as well as the Top 8 Cup final in Kenya.
After parting ways with the Kenyan side, he went to South Africa to take charge of FC Cape Town, albeit for less than a year, as he was to be on the road again to Rwanda as the Football Federation of Rwanda technical director.
As in his previous stint in South Africa, he was in that position for less than a year, leaving in December 2016 to take up a head coach’s job with the Eswatini national team where he lasted just five months.
He took up a job with broadcaster Supersport as a pundit in African football based in Kenya from January 2018 to the end of the year.
From June 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018, he was Caf technical advisor (youth development) based in Cairo, Egypt.
De Jongh holds Uefa A, B and C coaching badges, a youth trainer coaching diploma and a Fifa technical director certificate all licensed by KNVD (Royal Dutch Football Association).
Bunjiwe Mkwananzi