adminHis air ticket for the flight back to Germany has already been booked for July 31.
The Herald exclusively revealed last month that Pagels was in the final stages of his romance with the Warriors and their divorce was expected after the end of the Cosafa Cup.
There have been attempts by some Zifa leaders to give the impression that they were working out a new contract to engage Pagels on a substantive basis.
But we can reveal today, just as we did when we broke this story last month, that Pagels is in the final weeks of his attachment with the Warriors and will be gone very soon.
Pagels used his time in Germany recently to finalise his paperwork to return home, including his health insurance, and also secured a six-month contract with a school in Stade as sports teacher.
The government-to-government agreement that brought him here expires at the end of this month and Pagels said there will be no extensions to that.
The German coach took his players through their paces yesterday and the team is expected to leave tomorrow for Lusaka where they open their defence of the Cosafa Cup title with a quarter-final clash against Malawi on Saturday.
After conducting his first training session at the National Sports Stadium yesterday Pagels, who returned to Harare on Saturday from Europe, poured his heart out to the media.
He had been hoping to meet with Zifa officials since returning from Germany on Saturday, but his efforts have failed.
It also transpired yesterday that while Pagels was trying to meet Zifa officials, to clarify his position, they were in another meeting with Ian Gorowa, who is now earmarked to take over from the German.
After the Warriors’ last World Cup qualifier against Guinea in Conakry, the coach flew to Germany and has been holed up in his native land until his return to Harare at the weekend.
Pagels arrived in Zimbabwe in August 2010 as the Zifa technical advisor, under the auspices of the Olympic Solidarity Fund, on the secondment of the Germany Olympic Federation.
He was then appointed national team coach following the sacking of Rahman Gumbo and Zifa did not have to cater for anything, in terms of his upkeep, as the coach was still under the care of his employers.
Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze told our sister newspaper, The Sunday Mail, at the weekend that they had thrashed a deal for Pagels and he was going to continue in his job as the national team coach.
But Mashingaidze’s statements appeared in conflict with the position taken by Zifa president Cuthbert Dube, who announced on Wednesday that he was in favour of the appointment of a local coach.
Yesterday Pagels confirmed that he was going back home and had already secured a six-month contract as a sports teacher at his former school in his home town Stade.
“They (Zifa) approached me to work as an interim coach. So my contract is up. We will go to Zambia with the team and I will go home when I return,” said Pagels.
“My air ticket has already been booked for 31 July.
“I signed a contract in Stade and would be starting on August 6 up to February next year. After that I will take up any offer from anywhere in football, but if I don’t get any, I will stay at the school for a longer period.
“But Germany football has told me that there might be some short-term projects I might conduct as well.”
The coach said, as it stands, he doesn’t have the African Nations Championship qualifier away in Mauritius on the weekend of July 26-28 on his programme.
“I will be sorting one or two things here with the embassy and I don’t think I will be able to make that trip.
“If it is possible that the team would have returned by the 30th, then maybe I can go as I would be leaving the following day,” said Pagels.
The coach said while he enjoyed working with the players on the rebuilding exercise for the short time he was the national team gaffer, he believes life should go on even without him on the bench.
“Football is not about feeling, it is business. We started this rebuilding exercise and the guys were adapting very well and needed about six or eight matches to really come up,” said Pagels.
“I hope the boys will have success. It was really good working with these players. I am impressed that within the short time the players were adapting, working hard and wanted to have success.”
However, the coach said for now, he is focusing on the regional trophy and wants to do the best for this country.
Pagels also badly needs a victory as he is yet to win a competitive game since taking over as coach of the Warriors. Zimbabwe are the current holders of the Cosafa Cup after Sunday Chidzambwa and his men, led by Method Mwanjali, thrashed Zambian 3-1 at Rufaro, with Nyasha Mushekwi and Cuthbert Malajila on target, to win the tournament in 2009.
A number of those Zambian players went on to play a part in their team’s success when Chipolopolo won the Nations Cup in 2012 while the Zimbabwe team has disintegrated and is reeling from three failed Nations Cup campaigns and a 2014 World Cup campaign that has gone off the rails.
Yesterday, the home-based Warriors went through their paces under Pagels and his assistants Lloyd Mutasa and Nkululeko Dlamini.
Online Reporter