AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) on Monday named Kim Poulsen as new Head Coach for the national football team Taifa Stars, succeeding Burundian Etienne Ndayiragije.
According to a statement issued by TFF and signed by the federation’s Media and Communications Officer Clifford Ndimbo, the Danish trainer has inked a three-year deal to be at the helm of the senior team.
It said he will be responsible to sharpen Taifa Stars in their quest to qualify for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals as well as World Cup qualifiers scheduled in Cameroon and Qatar respectively.
Furthermore, the statement also noted that Poulsen coached Taifa Stars between 2012 to 2013 and prior to that, he was responsible for coaching youth national teams.
TFF reached mutual consent with Ndayiragije to go separate ways as such, his successor Poulsen will have a big role to play to advance the flag carrier bearers as far as the game of football is known.
The Burundian trainer, who before ascending to the Taifa Stars job coached three domestic clubs like Mbao, Azam and KMC, replaced former Nigeria and Barcelona player Emmanuel Amunike in 2019 following poor performance despite taking Stars to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals held in Egypt.
It was then the second time after 39 years for the national team to compete in the biggest football event on the continent but, under his tutelage, they lost all three matches in their group C hence making his contract to be trimmed.
During the 2019 AFCON campaign, Stars lost 2-0 to Senegal, 3-0 from Algeria and suffered another 3-2 setback from Kenya to end the tournament without earning a victory thereby fuelling the sacking of Amunike.
However, the big test for Ndayiragije was during the recently played 2021 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Cameroon where he failed to navigate the team to the quarterfinals.
The team played very well in their last game versus Guinea which ended 2-2 but the outcome went in favour of their opponents making the country’s envoys fail to reach in the promised land.
Failing to progress further into CHAN competition might be the reason behind Ndayiragije’s sacking as he was presented with all the necessary resources to take further the team.
Taifa Stars are exposed to all the required facilities to make them a strong side but year after year, they do not use the potential they have to scale up on the world face mainly by winning titles.
However, pundits have described the appointment of Poulsen as a positive step saying he has the required database of Tanzania players which will help him to simplify his duties while others wondered if he still has the skills required in modern football.
