We need to trust our local coaches

Only local coaches can revive the unique South African football flair

I think it is time we fully endorse South African coaches and earmark bigger roles for them within our domestic football sphere, rather than constantly opting for the perceived “superior” expertise of foreign coaches.

However, we can never deny that most of the foreign coaches are well-furnished with high level FIFA qualifications in contrast to the crop of local coaches. In spite of this, their success in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) has panned out quite differently on the pitch.

Once in a long while you do get that one foreign coach that clinches silverware with one of the PSL giants or one, like the former Orlando Pirates head honcho, Ruud Krol, who I must admit conjured one of the strongest teams in recent years of local football.

Mushin Ertugral, Paul Dolezar, Ernest Middendorp also fall amongst the list of candidates that have acclimatised to the South African football environment and have achieved their fair share of success.

Nevertheless, this does not mean our local coaches have not attained any success and I deem it highly preposterous that are being treated as second or third grade coaches by our PSL clubs. For example, SuperSport coach, Gavin Hunt, did win three consecutive PSL titles in recent years and is the current defending coach of the Nedbank Cup.

It is ridiculous that local coaches get shunned by our leading teams even though they are the ones that unearth the talent that we see today aiding the foreign coaches to glory most of the time. With many of them being former domestic football players; they do indeed know exactly the type of talent our football fraternity requires and which player will prospectively flourish, and so on.

To illustrate this, the likes of Simphiwe Tshabalala, Ayanda Gcaba, Edward Manqele, Thabo Matlaba, Eric Mathoho and Clifford Mulenga, to name a few, were moulded by the hands of seasoned local coaches in the Free State.
The spotlight that Tshabalala and Mathoho currently enjoy at Chiefs, under a foreign mentor, is the result of the relentless hard work by local coaches, to constantly try and prove themselves to our local football bosses. We need to acknowledge this.

Foreign coaches, on the other hand, do know how to utilise ripened players effectively. In other words, for a foreign coach to succeed at a local club, he has to find the teams that can afford them players already in good standing. The talent and the high remuneration packages must already be waiting for them to arrive.

When they eventually fail during that particular season, they wouldn’t care any less about being sacked, because they have most probably amassed the millions they came for in just a matter of months, while our local coaches remain voiceless and marginalised.

Sundown’s Pitso Mosimane, SuperSport’s Gavin Hunt and Bafana Bafana coach, Gordon Igesund, have all proven beyond doubt that they do possess the abilities to coach at the highest level; with coaches like Cavin Johnson now joining the elite grouping of capable local coaches.

At the moment, five of the PSL’s top eight teams are under the auspices of local coaches and 11 out of the 16 teams that make up the league are led by local coaches. Bafana Bafana already has one of our own, doing a good job at its helm.
South Africa’s local coaches’ employment target should be pushed to 100 percent, if our country’s brand of football is to be revived. No foreign coach can ever do it for us.