adminBelgian Tom Saintfiet has been appointed the new Togo national team coach on a two-year contract. Saintfiet, who has been at the team in a caretaker capacity, acknowledged the new developments but refused to divulge more details.
“We’ve been in negotiations and when you see the federation making the announcement then know it’s sealed already. However, I would not like to give any more details. You will get the rest of the information in an announcement to be done jointly with the federation on June 1,” Saintfiet said.
Saintfiet named a provisional 30-man squad that will start preparations, first for the Ghana friendly to be played in the first week of June, followed by their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying home campaign against Liberia on June 13.
Togo’s Football Federation Head of Normalisation Committee, Antoine Folly, announced the new development in a statement saying, “In collaboration with the Ministry of Sports we have decided to renew our confidence in caretaker coach Tom Saintfiet and for the first time in the Togo’s football history we will sign contracts with the entire technical bench, unlike previous years where only the head coach had a valid contract.”
Saintfiet has formerly coached Namibia, Ethiopia, Malawi, and he was shortly appointed technical director by the Nigeria FA.He has coached clubs like Yanga in Tanzania, where he won the Kagame Cup, and his last job was at PSL side Free State Stars.
He will be deputised by former Togo captain Abalo Dosseh.- Goal.com
Bongani Moyo
Online Reporter