2010 W/Cup: Saadane Carries Africa Coaching Mantle

Although the 2010 World Cup is the first to be staged on African soil, only one of the 32 teams will be led by a coach from the continent.

   Of the six African teams taking part, hosts south Africa African will be coached by a Brazilian while Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana will be under European leadership.

The exception is Algeria who are taking part in their first World Cup since 1986 and are led by local coach, Rabah Saadane.

“It’s a great satisfaction, though it’s not something I had really counted on,” Saadane told Tidesports source before a training session in the Swiss village, where his team are holding a two week camp.

“I think I’m representing all the African coaches and the Arab world as well, so it’s a big responsibility.”

African nations often employ local coaches to take them through the World Cup qualifiers, and then switch to a big-name European coach for the tournament itself.

“This is a matter for the directors and I don’t want to give any advice to the directors,” said Saadane, whose team face England, United States and Slovenia in Group C at the finals starting on June 11.

“But I can tell you that in Africa there are plenty of coaches and trainers of great quality.”

African coaches had not taken part in the World Cup at all until Abdelmajid Chetali led his native Tunisia to Argentina in 1978.

Before that, Yugoslavia’s Blagoje Vidinic coached Morocco at the 1970 finals and Zaire four years later, while Egypt were coached by a Scotsman in 1934, the only previous occasion an African team had qualified.

There was bumper year in 2002 when Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia were all led by local coaches but it was back to the usual routine four years ago in Germany when Angola’s Luis Oliveria goncalves was the only African to occupy the hot eat.