German Pagels for Warriors Coach

Sport
GERMAN Klaus-Dieter Pagels could be the next Zimbabwe national football team coach as early as January, IndependentSport is reliably informed.

GERMAN Klaus-Dieter Pagels could be the next Zimbabwe national football team coach as early as January, IndependentSport is reliably informed.

Pagels will be in Zimbabwe between October 10 and 30 on a government-to-government agreement between Zimbabwe and Germany “to conduct the evaluation of a long-term project.”

The arrangement, financed by the German Federal government, is similar to the one that originally brought the late Reinhard Fabisch, the popular former Warriors coach.

Current Zimbabwe coach Sunday Chidzambwa’s short-term contract expires at the end of the year. Chidzambwa was appointed for a second tenure last November following the departure of Brazilian Valinhos.

60-year-old Pagels was nominated by the German Football Federation to assist Zimbabwe in special technical areas. He has been coaching in his country since 1978.

“He is initially coming to do an assessment,” said a source close to the deal. “Fabisch came doing the same thing. We are hoping to then tie down Pagels after his assessment. We believe he will be a good coach for us in our drive to qualify for the 2012 African Nations Cup and the 2014 World Cup. His record and coaching credentials speaks for themselves.”

Documents at hand reveal that the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) wrote to the German federation in May with the request.

A German Olympic Sports Confederation representative Katrin Merkel in turn wrote to Zifa on September 2:“With reference to your application by the German Football Federation dated 28 May 2009 for a sports promotion project in your country we are pleased to inform you today that the well-experienced football expert Mr Pagels could come to Zimbabwe from 9 to 30 October inorder to conduct the evaluation of a long-time project.”

Pagels will get a chance to assess Zimbabwe’s players during the forthcoming Cosafa Senior Challenge tournament to be played in Harare and Bulawayo.

In the letter, Zifa also suggested further bilateral co-operation between the Zimbabwe and German FAs in such areas as capacity building, pre-season camps involving clubs, research work on football science among other areas.

Zifa also offered to host the Germany team and supporters ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Enock Muchinjo