Why is Sunday old, Broos considered young?

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor

SUNDAY CHIDZAMBWA is too old, so they say, and he should be left to enjoy his pension and retirement far away from the melting pot of international football.

After all, they claim, the game has changed quite a lot and now needs youthful and energetic coaches, who understand the complexity, of the changes.

It’s now a different world, so they say, to the one which used to be ruled by the likes of Sunday, whose coaching lessons came at the Brazilian school of excellence, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1984.

The country’s most successful coach announced on his birthday, in May this year, he was coming out of retirement, about a year after having decided to end a 35-year romance, in the trenches of coaching.

“God has blessed me and I am really grateful. I wish to be blessed with many more years but that can only be through His grace,’’ he told The Herald.

“I am still fit, l can even play a boozers’ match. I am looking forward to getting back into coaching soon. I think it is destiny, I chose football, I am passionate about the game and I thank God for all the achievements.’’

However, for all the comeback signals he sent, Chidzambwa didn’t even feature in the process as ZIFA tried to find someone, who could guide the Warriors, on an interim basis, after the sacking of the hapless Zdravko Logarusic.

His name, too, was barely trending, among the team’s fans, where there is a vocal constituency which feels the iconic gaffer has run his race, and is now too old to be handed national team responsibilities.

But, at the age of 69, is Mhofu too old?

If, indeed, his age has become an Achilles Heel, what about Hugo Broos, the coach who has taken a makeshift Bafana Bafana to the top of the 2022 World Cup qualifying group?

Just like Mhofu, the Belgian is also 69 and is about a month older than his Zimbabwean counterpart.

Broos was born on April 10, 1952, and he was 65 when he celebrated his finest hour in his African adventure, after guiding Cameroon to the 2017 AFCON title.

The Belgian, who would have been considered too old in domestic football, was head-hunted by the South African authorities to come and revive Bafana Bafana after the team’s failure to qualify for the 2021 AFCON finals.

For all his success, including winning the Belgian Coach of the Year award four times, Broos has also had his fair share of disappointments, in his lengthy coaching career.

He was sacked at Club Brugge, left KRC Genk in a huff and was dismissed at Turkish club Trabzonspor, after just five months in the job.

Even when he was hired by the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, he was coming from a failed adventure after losing his job as the assistant coach of United Arab Emirates side, Al Jazira Club.

According to Nuhu Adams, a Ghanaian journalist who is an authority on African football, Broos will earn around US$50 000 a month, in his five-year deal with Bafana Bafana.

Unless he is fired, the deal will take Broos into his 74th birthday.

Milovan Rajevic, the Serbian coach the Ghanaians turned to last week in an attempt to revive their misfiring Black Stars, is 67.

For the Ghanaians, it appears, nothing beats experience and the more the game has changed, the more it has apparently stayed the same. And, after a period in which they invested in their young coaches, the West Africans decided to go back to the man who helped them to their finest hour, when he guided them to the quarter-finals, of the 2010 World Cup.

The Serb quit his post on September 8, 2010, after being lured by the big money from Saudi club, Al Ahli.

But, just five months later, he left to take charge of the Qatar national side.

However, six months into his role in charge of the country, which will host the next World Cup, Rajevac was sacked.

A short stint at Rudar Velenje, in Slovania, followed before he was appointed coach of the Desert Foxes of Algeria, only for him to leave, after just two months.

His next adventure was to take charge of the Thailand national team, on April 2017 but, in February the following year, he was fired, after an embarrassing 1-4 defeat to India, at the 2019 Asian Cup.

He was unemployed until the Ghanaians came calling, gambling on his presence, and possibly magic, to breathe life into the Black Stars, and transform them into a team which can win the next AFCON finals.

Crucially, they also believe he can help them go on another Cinderella run, like the one they enjoyed, when they came with a successful penalty conversion of becoming the first African side, to reach the semi-finals, of the World Cup.

The Serb will receive a US$300 000 package, should he help the Black Stars secure qualification, to the World Cup, next year.

However, his recruitment has not been welcomed by everyone within the Ghanaian football family.

Veteran coach, J E Sarpong, said the Serb’s second dance, with the Black Stars, will only end in failure and tears.

“He (Rajevac) can’t do anything. He will be a failure,’’ the former Asante Kotoko, Hearts of Oak and Ebusua Dwarfs coach, told Ghanaian radio station, Luv FM.

‘‘He is only coming to take money and go.”

Rajevac will receive US$30 000 a month as his salary, and a US$300 000 bonus should he help the Black Stars win the next AFCON finals in Cameroon.

He also received US$100 000 ashis signing-on fee.

Both Rajevac and Broos, with a combined age of 136 years, will be considered too old by many within domestic football to take charge of the Warriors.