Palacios hints at working in Eswatini

By Linda Dlamini

MBABANE- Peruvian coach Agusto Palacios has given the strongest hint ever that should any football/national team from Eswatini offer him a job he would take it.

Even though Palacios has never coached in the Mountain Kingdom though in the past he coached some of Eswatini’s great footballers of all time in the likes of William, Abel Shongwe and Absalom Thindwa when he joined South African side Kaizer Chiefs in the 1990 as a coach.

He also couched Dennis “Yuki” Masina when he joined Orlando Pirates from Supersport United during the 2009 season.

“It was a honor for me to coach some of the finest to ever come out of Swaziland (now Eswatini) when i joined Chiefs in the early 90s,” said Augusto, “so yeah! In the future, if anything comes up, I will not hesitate to come down and assist in the development of football in Eswatini” he said.

He added that the SADC region as a whole is far behind other regions in the continent when it comes to developing and producing young stars that could compete at the highest level.

“Players from the other parts of Africa plays in Europe in as early as 16, 17 and I always say there’s no young star above 18 years, that’s a first team player, but with the COSAFA region we are very far behind”.

He also made an example of South America which has produced numerous world football icons such as Lionel Messi from Argentina, Neymar Junior from Brazil and the likes of Kaka and even the undisputed Pele.

Palacios is known in South Africa for producing very good young players having been at Orlando Pirates for 20 years as Head of Development and in that period he promoted the likes of Lebogang Mokoena, the late Lesley Manyathela to name a few.