Kunene steps into the eSwatini hot seat

Zambia have short-listed three coaches to take over the senior men national team, Zimbabwe have appointed an interim coach while eSwatini have taken the plunge and appointed Dominic Kunene to fill the post vacated by Kosta Papic until the end of the year.

Milutin Sredejovic better known in football circles as Micho, former Liverpool player and Mozambique national coach Abel Xavier and former Al-Ittihad Tripoli coach Ivan Minnaert are the three short-listed coaches for the vacant Zambian post.

The Zambian post became vacant when Belgian national Sven Vandenbroeck resigned after leading Zambia to one victory, drawing one and losing two matches and the trio above were short-listed following an advertisement for the post.

The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) had initially head-hunted former Bloemfontein Celtic and Botswana national coach Vaseline Jelusica, their intentions were thwarted when Minister of Sport Emmanuel Mulenga shot down his impending appointment and instead urged FAZ to encourage local coaches to apply for the job since the incumbent would be paid by the government.

And while Joey Antipass is expected to call the shots when Zimbabwe tackle Africa’s number one ranked country Algeria in back-to-back AFCON fixtures in March, Zambia hope to have appointed a coach for their double-header programme against Botswana during the same period.

Antipass stepped into the coaching hot seat when Sunday Chidzambwa resigned when the team returned from their AFCON sojourn in Egypt last July where they failed to get out of the group stages.

Kunene gets a chance to prove his coaching credentials with a home and away fixture against Congo Brazzaville also during March since World Cup 2022 fixtures have been swapped with Cameroon 2021 qualifying programme.