Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: YOUNG Africans yesterday named Zlatko Krmpotic as their new coach who has penned a two-year contract to work at the club and is expected to land in the country today.
This was confirmed by the club’s kit and merchandise suppliers GSM’S Investment Director Hersi Said who described the Serbian trainer as a very successful coach who once drove TP Mazembe to claim the CAF Champions League (CAF CL) title.
“Initially, we all agreed to hire Cedric Kaze as the coach but things went opposite direction in the last minutes when he announced that due to family problems he has, it was impossible for him to come and take up the post.
“For us, it could have been an added advantage to get him (Kaze) because he is a multilingual capable to speak French, English and Kiswahili which is a big quality for coaches to have in modern football,” Hersi said.
He added that Kaze gave them two options which are to wait for a minimum of three weeks for him to make final decision regarding the family problem or else let the club get a new coach.
“For us, after conducting an emergency meeting, we agreed to get a new coach who is Krmpotic and has since agreed to work with the existing technical bench whose Assistant Coach will be Juma Mwambusi who has signed a one- year deal and has already started his responsibilities,” he said.
About another foreign based striker Yacouba Sogne who was expected to jet in on Thursday, Hersi said the player will instead arrive on Monday and the delay was caused by the cancellation of his flight.
Also, Hersi was full of confidence that the current squad of Yanga will stage a competitive fight during the next season while insisting that they have now acquired a two team squad.
“We have one squad which is complete with only domestic players without including the foreign ones and that is what us as sponsors of the team would like to see. “No sponsor can be happy to invest on something which does not bring tangible results and as we pledged last season that next season we will be highly involved to rebuild the team, I can say until now, we have fulfilled that promise by 95 per cent,” he said.
Additionally, Hersi underscored that no team can register success if they have weak management a thing he said was the main reason to hire former Simba Chief Executive Officer Senzo Mazingisa.
“He (Mazingisa) has a vast experience in football management that is why we pointed him as the best man to propel our team to prosperity as far as the Administration is known. “We signed a one year extension contract with him and it is our hope that he is going to perform well and his works will begin to be seen after the climax of Wiki ya Mwananchi set tomorrow at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam,” he lamented.
Concerning the club’s kit which earlier was announced to be unveiled yesterday, Hersi said due to transport woes, they have been forced to reschedule the event but he insisted that the squad will start the next season in new attire.
