Publications
Partners
Cape Town - After a lengthy search process, the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) has reportedly settled on giving the head coach role to former Orlando Pirates mentor, Ruud Krol.
Sport24 reported last month that Carlos Queiroz and Herve Renard were said to be SAFA's top-two choices.
The official unveiling of the coach was set for Friday, March 3, but in a single tweet the Bafana Bafana account postponed the announcement due to the "unavailability of the chosen candidate".
However, days later both Queiroz and Renard ruled themselves out of the running for the vacant position due to prior commitments with Iran and Morocco, respectively.
Were he to be appointed, Queiroz, a former Manchester United assistant manager, would serve his second spell as South African senior side mentor.
The Mozambican-born Queiroz had a short two-year stint as Bafana Bafana head coach between 2000 and 2002.
SAFA then looked to secure the services of SuperSport United coach Stuart Baxter, who also served as Bafana Bafana mentor between 2004 and 2005.
However, Matsatsantsa have been doing well under Baxter’s tutelage and club owners are reluctant to let the Scot leave.
According to the Mail and Guardian website, Krol has already agreed terms and conditions with the football governing body.
"He has coached in his native Holland,” said an unnamed source.
"But he has also worked mainly in Africa since 1994 when he took charge of the Egyptian Under-23’s and later the senior team and what appears to have given him an added advantage is that he is available to start working without delay.”
Krol’s credentials speak for itself as he is well respected in all parts of Africa having coached CS Sfaxien, Zamalek, Esperance and Raja Casablanca as well as guiding the Buccaneers to a league and cup treble during his time at Mayfair.
The 67-year-old has also coached on a national level, serving as Netherlands assistant coach to Louis Van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard before taking the hot seat in Egypt and Tunisia.
South Africa have been without a coach since SAFA axed Shakes Mashaba in December last year.
The 66-year-old Mashaba was found guilty of insulting top football officials after South Africa's 2018 Soccer World Cup qualifier victory over Senegal.
Meanwhile, Bafana Bafana assistant coach Owen da Gama will be in charge on an interim basis as the team prepares to take on Guinea-Bissau and Angola in back-to-back friendly international matches (March 25 and 28).
Da Gama named a 25-man squad on Thursday to train for those clashes.
