Siasia, Mancini With 30 Other Coaches Jostle For Bafana Job

Samson Siasia is spreading his net wide as he searches for a new job.

The former Super Eagles manager, who has been out of work since he guided the national Under-23 team to a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, was last week listed among the 52 coaches who applied for the vacant Rwanda job.


Daily Reporters reliably gathered that Siasia has also applied for the South Africa manager’s job, which became vacant following the sacking of Ephraim Mashaba in December last year.

Siasia had earlier confirmed applying for the vacant manager’s position at South African powerhouse Orlando Pirates.

According to our sources, the Tunisia ’94 Africa Cup of Nations winner is also scouring other parts of the continent for a job. A number of national coaches’ jobs are under threat following their teams’ poor performances at the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. Callisto Pasuwa was fired following Zimbabwe’s group stage exit at the tournament, while Belgian Georges Leekens called it quits with Algeria following the star-studded Desert Foxes’ elimination from the championship. And Israeli manager Avram Grant ended his reign as Ghana coach after the Black Stars came fourth in Gabon.

Our source further revealed that Siasia was one of the 32 coaches who had submitted their CVs to the South African Football Association to be considered for the vacant Bafana job.

Also said to have applied for the role are former Inter Milan and Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini, who is currently out of job, former Italy manager Giovanni Trapattoni and Hassan Shehata‚ who guided Egypt to three successive titles at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

SAFA chief executive Dennis Mumble, who confirmed that the association had been contacted by the coaches about the Bafana job, however said they had not spoken to any of them

“We have received all these CVs and we want to make it clear that they are all unsolicited and we have not spoken to anyone about the Bafana job‚” Mumble was quoted by SowetanLIVE as saying on Sunday.

SAFA president Danny Jordaan said former Bafana captains Lucas Radebe and Neil Tovey would be part of a committee to interview the managers who had applied for the national team job.

He said the association would only consider a coach who possesses the quality to help South Africa to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Cameroon 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, CHAN and winning the Cosafa Cup.

Jordaan said a coach would be appointed before Bafana take on Guinea Bissau and Angola in friendly matches in March ahead of their Cameroon 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Nigeria.