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TOM Saintfiet and Marc Duvillard are the only foreigners among the six coaches that have been short-listed for the vacant Warriors job.
The coaches that have been short-listed are Norman Mapeza, Cosmas “Tsano” Zulu, Joey Antipas, Godfrey Tamirepi, Duvillard and Saintfiet.
Saintfiet and Duvillard are the most prominent of the six candidates short-listed to the Warriors coaching post. Saintfiet is currently coaching Namibia. Duvillard has coached Zimbabwe before.
The vacant Zimbabwe job received 13 applicants, following the resignation of Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa in March this year. Germany Otto Pfister, who went to the World Cup tournament with Togo in 2006 was then the highest profile of the job applicants but has since fallen by wayside.
Kenny Marange, the chairman of the selection committee said some candidates such as Pfister had fallen by wayside after the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) considered that they would not be able to match their financial demands.
Marange told Standardsport that the selection committee had so far interviewed three short-listed candidates.
“The interviewing of candidates has been going on well.We short-listed six candidates from the 13 that had initially applied for the job.
“So far we have interviewed three candidates and we still have three candidates yet to be interviewed,” Marange said.
The other two candidates who have been interviewed by the selection committee are Tamirepi, who has been coaching in Botswana for the past three years and Zulu who was the first candidate to throw his application for the job.
The current caretaker coach Mapeza, his assistant Antipas and Duvillard are yet to be interviewed.
Mapeza and Antipas are set to be interviewed after their assignment in Liberia today.
The other candidates, who were in the running for the Warriors job are two Croatians Milos Hrstic and Tomislan Obbradovic.
Phillip Zulu, a Zimbabwean based in UK, Pfister, Tongai Dodo another Zimbabwean based in UK, Zoran Djordjevic from Serbia and Peter Butler from UK also applied for the job but were not considered.
The Warriors coach post became vacant after Chidzambwa dumped the Warriors to join South African top-flight league side Free State Stars.
Mapeza was appointed caretaker coach after Chidzambwa’s departure.
Mapeza will take charge of the Warriors in the opener of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia today.
Mapeza has a high chance of landing the job but has to fend off the challenge from Saintfiet.
Who is Saintfiet?
The Namibia coach was born on March 29 1973 in Belgium. He played football between 1983 to 1997 before an early retirement due to an injury.
He became a football manager at 24, making him the youngest manager in Belgian football.
He is the current coach of the Brave Warriors of Namibia.
Saintfiet seems not to be ready to settle in one place. In April he applied for the Chipolopolo team coach post, which went vacant after the departure of Frenchman Herve Reinard.
Saintfiet was short-listed for interviews again in Zambia but could not land the job.
Saintfiet holds a UEFA A Pro Coaching Licence. He has coached in several countries including Qatar, where he was assistant club coach and then Under-17 coach, which qualified for Fifa World Cup in Germany.
He also had a stint with Holland junior teams sides and was first Division technical director. He was Finnish Premier League club Rovaniemi coach before going to Namibia.
He was also an advisor for the Kazakhstan Football Federation and worked as a TV football analyst for Belgian Television and a translator for the DFB.
Warriors coach short-listed candidates:
Cosmas “Tsano” Zulu, Norman Mapeza, Tom Saintfiet, Joey Antipas, Godfrey Tamirepi, Marc Duvillard.
BY BRIAN NKIWANE
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