HARARE The unparalleled success of the Egyptian national soccer team in the African Cup of Nations that the Pharaohs topped up with another flawless display at Angola 2010 has reignited debate over the superiority of local coaches over their foreign counterparts when it comes to handling African national teams.
This issue has long been debated, especially in Africa where in some countries it is probably as old as the game itself.
What complicates the issue is that no African country has ever won the World Cup which to date has remained the preserve of teams from Europe and South America, compelling most African nations to look in those directions in search of coaches capable of turning around their fortunes on the international stage.
Egypt, however, have maintained their faith in a local coaches and will probably point out that their latest triumph in the 2010 edition of the Nations Cup (their third successive and seventh overall title) clearly proves that their faith in a homegrown coach Hassan Shehata is not misguided.
But the other side of the coin is that Shehatas touch was not good enough to take his country to this years historic 2010 FIFA World Cup and given Egypts lofty status in African football and the magnitude of the World Cup the Pharaohs absence in South Africa is bound to take some gloss over the mentors achievements.
String of foreign coaches
Zimbabwe are unlikely to engage the services of a foreign coach, at least for the time being. The Warriors have a bad international record under international coaches and even the recent 03 drubbing at the hands of Bafana Bafana is unlikely to change the status of locally-based coach Sunday Chidzambwa.
Ironically, it was Chidzambwa who in 2004 guided the Warriors to their maiden appearance at the African Cup of Nations hosted by Tunisia after a string of foreign coaches had failed to do so in 23 years of trial and error.
The likes of Ian Potterfield, (Scotland), Ben Koufie, (Ghana), Reinhard Fabisch (Germany) among others could not take Zimbabwe to either the African Cup of Nations or the World Cup in a country where football is the most popular sport.
And as if to strengthen the belief in local coaches an experiment by the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) to hire a Brazilian coach (Jorge Valinhos) resulted in the Warriors failing to qualify for this years African Cup of Nations.
This came just four years after the success of Charles Mhlauri, who engineered the Warriors second African Cup of Nations appearance in 2006.
New South African Football Association (Safa) leadership under Kirsten Nematandani has signaled its intentions of going the Egyptian way.
The Safa boss has indicated his executive will enlist the services of a local coach for Bafana Bafana when Brazilian Carlos Pareiras contract runs out after the World Cup.
Disappointing results
Supersports Gavin Hunt arguably South Africas most accomplished local coach in recent times is being touted as Pareiras replacement as Safa look to give local coaches a chance to prove their mettle in the wake of disappointing results under Joel Santana.
Despite Safas much publicised intention to rope in a local mentor, there is still a lingering feeling within football circles that Nematandani and company are using the World Cup as a benchmark upon which to test the abilities of Pareira, who already has an impressive 30 victory over a full strength Paraguay during his first stint as Bafana coach firmly under his belt.
South Africa are not new to the World Cup, but have never gone beyond the first round in any of their previous attempts.
In the past, foreign coaches have done little to change their fortunes and the envisaged appointment of a local mentor could have been brought about by such a background of events, or potentially, the fact that South Africas 1996 triumph at the African Cup of Nations which was masterminded by Clive Barker was purely homegrown.
The nationalities of the coaches that are likely to guide the six African teams at this years World Cup make interesting reading and may suggest that the continent has an inclination towards foreign coaches.
As things stand, Pareira will be joined at the World Cup by at least three European coaches who are currently in charge of some of the teams that will represent Africa Ivory Coasts Vahid Halicho (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ghanas Milovan Rajevac (Serbia) and Paul Le Guen (France), who is the current coach of Cameroon.
Yet to decide
Algeria have put their hopes in a local coach Rabah Saadane while Nigeria are yet to decide after firing Shuaibu Amodu from his job citing poor performance at the Nations Cup finals in Angola where the Super Eagles won bronze.
To date, Cameroon remain the most successful African team in the World Cup a feat they achieved in 1990 when they reached the quarter final stage.
While during that tournament they were coached by local Jean Manga Ouguene, it is important to note that during the qualifiers, the Indomitable Lions were under the tutelage of Belgian Henri Depieux who was later sacked despite not having lost a single game in all his matches. Onguene only replaced the Belgian in their last qualifier.
The Super Eagles also had an impressive show in 1994, when they managed to reach the second round of the showcase under Dutchman Clemens Westerhof.
Post published in: Football