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Sharuko On Saturday
I WANT to make a little confession — I was so relieved this week when ZIFA announced the appointment of a proper football coach to take charge of the Warriors.
I had genuine fears, leading up to the announcement that the ZIFA board could bring in a swimming coach unaware that his specialty is in the water.
Someone like the legendary Bob Bowman, the man who coached Michael Phelps to 28 Olympic medals, including 23 whose colour was gold.
When your football association is led by a man who has spent a year without setting foot at a PSL game, there is always a chance he could brew such a shocker.
There must be something about the ZIFA presidency that sucks out intelligence, and reality, from the men who occupy that hot seat.
Four years ago, the man who was in the seat, which Lincoln Mutasa occupies today, even had the audacity to tell us that the Warriors coach he had hired had “coached in most of the continents in Zimbabwe.”
Yes, you heard it right, Zdravko Logarusic had, according to Felton Kamambo, “coached in most of the continents in Zimbabwe.”
That is the same Loga who went on to win just ONE of the 14 matches he was in charge of the Warriors.
The same Loga who, after being fired from the Warriors, ended up being hired by Kenya Police FC, a club which was only formed 10 years ago.
He took charge of 15 games, won only four, lost six and drew five games.
On Christmas Eve last year, after only four months in charge at Kenya Police, Loga was fired.
The coach who replaced him, Salim Babu, ended guiding the club into third place and a place in the CAF Confederation Cup this season.
How a coach, who was not good enough to coach a Kenyan club, was considered by Kamambo and his crew to be good enough to guide the Warriors to victory over the Kenyan national team, defies logic.
But, that is what happens to men who end up becoming ZIFA president, they lose the sense of reasoning, they become prisoners of fantasy, they live in their own world where reasoning is outlawed.
It’s a measure of the madness that stalks the ZIFA presidency post that it has taken exactly THREE years for the association to find another substantive coach to replace Logarusic.
The Croat was fired in September 2021 and, three years later, ZIFA finally appointed a substantive replacement after hiring Michael Nees of Germany.
It appears the appointment of the 57-year-old coach has so far been warmly welcomed by many people within the domestic football family.
I can understand that because when a football community finds itself without a substantive national team coach in three years, it is likely to welcome anyone who is thrust into that job.
So, the identity of the man who is given that job, his capacity to deliver, his qualifications, his history and all that stuff which is considered by fans, and pundits alike, end up being ignored.
All that matters is that, at least, someone has been thrust into the job.
It’s like a homeless man, for him what matters is that he has been given a house, the quality or lack of the house doesn’t matter.
What matters is that he has a roof above his head.
Therefore, I can understand why so much warmth is being extended towards Nees as he begins his adventure as the latest coach of our Warriors.
For some, any German coach was always going to be acceptable because they find themselves still trapped in the nostalgia of Reinhard Fabisch’s Dream Team era.
WELCOME MICHAEL BUT…
I am sorry to say that I don’t share the same optimism that I am seeing from many football fans, and pundits, in the wake of Nees’ appointment as the new Warriors coach.
It’s an open secret that I didn’t like the man who many felt was the favourite for the job, the other German coach, Wilfried Schafer, despite his impressive CV of having won the Nations Cup with Cameroon.
My reservations were not only built around his age, 74, but that Schafer was no longer the same man who, twenty two years ago, inspired Cameroon to the Nations Cup final.
My argument was that those Indomitable Lions were so good that even another coach, who was not Schafer, was likely to lead them to the Nations Cup title in 2002.
After all, those Indomitable Lions were just defending the AFCON title they won in Nigeria in 2000.
That Schafer did not enjoy similar success, after leaving Cameroon, is something that was always concerning me and kept fuelling my argument that he was probably not the best candidate for the job.
Well, ZIFA also felt the same and decided Nees was the man who had the best credentials to take our Warriors to another level.
I wish him good luck because I think he is going to need tonnes of luck in his new job.
I will embrace him because he is my team’s coach and I have to be seen to be supporting him because he is fighting for the cause of my country.
It’s like the Chakari United coach, I have no option but to support him, even though I might not believe in him.
It’s like the Chegutu Pirates coach, I have no option, but to support him, even if I don’t believe him.
It’s like the Manchester United coach, I have no option but to support him even though I don’t believe in Erik Ten Hag.
So, let me make this very clear so that I am not misquoted, I will embrace Nees and support him because he is now my coach.
But, that should not blind me from the reality that we appear to have gone back to the flawed formula which brought in Loga for a similar assignment.
We have been to the AFCON finals five times and our next target should be to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.
Somehow, our ZIFA bosses believe that someone like Nees, who has never taken a team to the AFCON finals, despite having spent a substantial period working on this continent, is the best man to help us get beyond the group stages of the tournament.
How do we believe that a coach, who will consider he has done an excellent job if he finally leads a team to the AFCON finals, is the right man who can take us beyond the group stages of this tournament?
It’s like asking a tractor driver to go head-to-head with Formula One stars like Lewis Hamilton, on their own turf, and expecting the guy who has spent all his life negotiating field markings.
Nees is 57 and if he was that good he should, at least, have taken a country to the AFCON finals, that is the least that is expected of European coaches who come to work in Africa.
This guy’s first job in Africa was in 2003 and that his CV shows that his only jobs, as head coach, were in Seychelles and Rwanda, should have been a red flag for us.
The best part of his CV shows that he is a coach of coaches, someone like the late Nelson Matongorere.
That Matongorere, who was the best instructor of coaches that we had, ended up working as an assistant coach to Lloyd Chitembwe, should tell us that there is no guarantee that those who coach coaches will be successful as coaches of players.
We should have hired Nees as our technical director, to work in the ZIFA office, taking care of the programmes related to the technical issues, especially the coaching of coaches.
That we hired him as the Warriors coach doesn’t sit well with me because there is nothing, on his CV, to suggest that he will write a success story with our national team.
His CV shows that he worked as technical director in Israel and also the Under-21 coach while he also coached the Kosovo Under-21 coach.
That is his terrain, for me, and that is a different terrain than coaching a senior national team like the Warriors.
There is a constituency in our football which will always tell you that our best national team coach has been Fabisch.
So, any German coach, who comes along, will always be welcomed by those fans.
But, the reality is that only one German coach has won the Nations Cup in the history of the tournament.
That coach was Schafer in 2002.
Seven out of the last 10 AFCON finals have been won by African nations who were under the guidance of their local coaches.
Hassan Shehata won three with Egypt on the trot between 2006 and 2010, Stephen Keshi won with Nigeria in 2013, Djamel Belmadi won with Algeria in 2019, Aliou Cisse won with Senegal in 2022 and Emerse Fae won with Cote d’Ivoire this year.
For Michael, just qualifying for the AFCON finals will be his biggest achievement to date.
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: [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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