By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
The SA Football Association (Safa) has been caught in a situation of having put its eggs in the basket of securing Carlos Queiroz as its next Bafana Bafana head coach‚ and the Portuguese declining has left the association scrambling for a suitable candidate.
Queiroz is believed to have been the top option on a shortlist of five candidates presented by Safa’s technical committee to a meeting of the national executive committee (NEC) on Saturday.
Safa had stated on their official Twitter page that it would make the announcement on Saturday. However late on Friday night Safa put out a statement that the announcement had been delayed due to international “Covid-19 travel issues” for the preferred candidate.
The following a day-long intense meeting between the SAFA Technical committee and the NEC,the whole picture changed.
By the time SAFA announced the cancellation of the much-anticipated announcement on Saturday, the three South African-born coaches were back in the race.
As it stands, our sources have indicated that SAFA has approached Eric Tinkler to take over the reigns as the new Bafana Bafana coach.
Tinkler, who controlled the Bafana midfield at the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations triumph, is more than a suitable candidate to replace Molefi Ntseki.
Tinkler, who is a UEFA Pro Licence holder, meets all the requirements for the position and has even played in top European leagues like Italy and England.
In domestic football Tinkler has won two trophies – the Telkom Knockout with Cape Town City FC (2016/17) and the MTN8 with SuperSport (2017/18).
Pitso Mosimane has informed Al Ahly president Mahmoud El-Khatib that he will reject the desperate advances of the South African Football Association (SAFA) for him to take over as Bafana Bafana coach.
Herve Renard, we are now told, was nothing more than a mere “media speculation” and was actually never in the race.
Hugo Broos is, as things stand, the only foreign-born coach in contention for the position.
Locally, Benni McCarthy is leading the race, with Gavin Hunt as an option, depending on fine-detail negotiations as SAFA look to make an announcement later this week.
However AmaZulu boss Sandile Zungu has issued a strong statement to the SA Football Association (Safa) and said Carthy is not available to coach Bafana Bafana.
Portuguese-born mentor, Queiroz was at one stage the outright favourite for the job.
Carlos Queiroz
Former Real Madrid manager and Manchester United assistant manager Queiroz favourite to return for a second spell in charge.
The 68-year-old first arrived in the country in 2000 and qualified the national team to their second ever World Cup qualification in 2002. However, the no nonsense mentor of very strong principles failed to travel to the quadrennial tournament with the team following a fall-out with the association. He was replaced by Jomo Cosmos boss, Jomo Sono who led the team in Korea/Japan, failing to advance to the group stages of the tournament.
Queiroz is currently a free agent since he parted ways with Colombia last December.
Herve Renard
Renard has spent more time in Africa than anywhere, achieving more success than anywhere else. In his second spell with the Zambian national team, the 52-year-old led Zambia to their sentimental 2012 Africa Cup of Nations championship in Gabon.
While he should get credit since he was the coach in charge when Zambia won the Afcon in 2012 in Gabon, it should be also noted that Zambia’s unstoppable attitude in the tournament was linked to the 1993 tragedy that had befallen the Zambian nation on this exact day 28 years ago (27 April 1993) . This when a plane carrying most of the Zambian players crashed moments after taking off from Libreville in Gabon killing all 25 passengers including five members of the crew.
Renard was back at it leading Ivory Coast to their Afcon championships, becoming the first coach to win the Afcon tournament with two different nations.
Renard further went on to lead Morocco to the 2018 FIFA World Cup for the first time in 20 years.
Hugo Broos
The 69-year-old,Broos has had a fair history of club success, coaching the likes of Anderlecht and KRC Genk in Belgium. But it is his record with the national teams. Cameroon is the only national team he has ever coached in his career. But then again, having taken the reins in Cameroon in 2016, he led the team to the Afcon championship.
The South African Football Association has confirmed the new Bafana Bafana coach will be named on Saturday.