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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
ZDRAVKO LOGARUSIC is probably the most colourful Warriors coach ever – a larger-than-life character who even sparked a storm from female Kenyan football fans furious about his dismissal from Gor Mahia seven years ago.
The firebrand Croat comes with a baggage – a history of running battles with his employers, messy lawsuits over what he claimed were unpaid dues and an enduring popularity with the ladies – they even created a Facebook page for him in Kenya.
His age is also a source of mystery.
Wikipedia says he is 54, born on October 21, 1965, while the authoritative transfermarket website, which traces the global football market, says he was born on February 15, 1962, which means he will be turning 58 in two weeks’ time.
But, for all the negativity generated by his appointment, he also appears to know the African football terrain – after spending the past decade in its trenches in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola and Uganda – and building a foundation of success at Gor Mahia.
When the Nairobi giants hired Loga in 2012, looking for a Messiah to bring the light, Gor Mahia were staggering in the wilderness of failure, without a league title in 17 years.
Relegation even loomed large for the club.
Loga had only been in Africa for three years, after having first settled in Ghana, but he waved some magic and won two knockout tournaments with Gor Mahia and, by November 2012, stood on the verge of ending the club’s lengthy wait for the league title.
His side led the championship race, with just two games to go, including one against bottom club Muhoroni Youths, which they convincingly won 4-0 in the penultimate round of the campaign, to set themselves for a perfect home success story against Thika United.
“I am better off winning the league title than being declared the best coach. Winning the league is the bigger prize,” he told the Kenyan media back then as his side enjoyed an impressive 17-match unbeaten run.
‘’The path we have covered has been rocky, sometimes muddy, sometimes smooth but we have come out strong. Now the prize is within touching distance, we cannot afford to fall.’’
But, fall they did.
Gor Mahia were held to a home 1-1 draw, in their final match by Thika United, while Tusker FC thrashed Nairobi City Stars 3-0, on the same day, to win the championship by a point.
It would have been Loga’s first league title and Gor Mahia couldn’t build on that promise, the following season, after the coach’s spectacular fallout, with the club’s management, saw him being sacked.
The club leaders said the Croat started to make outrageous demands, including a considerable rise in his salary and perks which they couldn’t afford and, when he left for a holiday in Croatia, the coach didn’t come back as scheduled.
Loga claimed he could not return on a tourist visa, which he said he had been using to work for Gor Mahia, and wanted a formal work permit before he could fly back to Nairobi.
The coach also slammed the club leaders for sending him a one-way ticket.
The ugly impasse resulted in him being sacked but, when Gor Mahia flighted an advert looking for his replacement, a few days later, Loga applied for that post again.
His dismissal sparked a furious backlash from a number of female football fans in Kenya with some of them even creating a Facebook page, demanding that he be reinstated.
Newspaper reports revealed that some of those female fans “were so fixated with Logarusic they donned branded T-shirts, pants and brassieres bearing his name,” as part of an elaborate campaign, for the Gor Mahia bosses to reconsider their decision.
Amid all that drama, it’s easy to forget the Croatian coach built a solid foundation at Gor Mahia who went on to win the Kenyan league title in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and last year.
Never short of suitors, Loga was lured to Tanzanian giants Simba SC on a big salary with the club buying him a house overlooking the beachfront but the romance didn’t last long and, when it ended before a year, the Croat demanded US$500 000 in compensation, which the club refused to pay.
He arrived at AFC Leopards, Gor Mahia’s biggest rivals, in 2015 but, again, he didn’t last long with the coach terminating his relationship by sending the club a text message and accusing them of failing to pay him and his rentals, leading to his eviction from an apartment he was staying in.
He returned to Ghana, where he joined Asante Kotoko, who even bought him a car but, after winning just five of 11 games, he was fired with the Croat hitting back at the club’s management as “liars.’’
Loga took over as the manager of the Sudan national team in December 2017 and led them to third place in the CHAN finals, his biggest success story so far on the continent, before he was sacked from that role on November 30, last year, after a defeat to Bafana Bafana.
The Croat will again face the South Africans in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers and believes Bafana Bafana, just like the Warriors, will be playing for second place in the group as Ghana’s Black Stars will win the race.
“I must talk as a coach, Ghana has many quality players who play much bigger games than South Africa, and the rest, so in the group, Ghana is absolutely the favourite,” he told Fox FM, a Ghanaian radio, on Wednesday.
“We have to fight for position number two because Ghana is definitely likely to finish first.’’ He also refused to rule out a return to Ghana to coach the Black Stars.
“You never know what happens in the coaching business, if you asked CK Akonnor one year ago whether he will one-day coach Ghana, he would have told you he doesn’t know,’’ he said.
“But, after one year on, he is now the coach of Ghana, so you never know in the coaching business, today you are here tomorrow you are there, so today I am in Zimbabwe and am concentrating on Zimbabwe for now.”
Online Reporter