AmaZulu’s appointment of Romain Folz epitomizes a major problem that exists in SA football

Cape Town - AmaZulu’s appointment of Romain Folz as their new head coach epitomizes a major problem that exists in South African football. Many clubs are willing to entrust unknown European coaches ahead of aspiring young coaches and even international coaches from outside Europe.

There is no problem with clubs hiring international coaches. Having international presence allows for more ideas to come into South African football and it also makes the league more interesting. However, it is noticeable that there has always been a big presence of fairly little known European coaches in the league with a much smaller presence from other African nations and continents.

The 32-year-old Folz may have good managerial ideas but does not yet have a good record. His recent stint with Marumo Gallants was only the second-full time role of his young managerial career as he previously led Botswana based club Township Rollers.

It is also quite frankly degrading to long-time AmaZulu servant Ayanda Dlamini to be serving as an assistant to Folz. If anything, if Usuthu saw value in Folz, it would have been more worthwhile to recruit him to their technical team, possibly as an assistant to someone like Dlamini so that he can learn the ins and outs of South African football.

Dlamini has previously led AmaZulu. He helped the club avoid relegation in the 2019/20 season and also led it in the early stages of its memorable 2020/21 season before taking a role within the club’s development structures after Benni McCarthy was appointed to lead the team in late 2020. AmaZulu famously went on to finish second in the 2020/21 season, their highest ever finish since the inception of the South African top-flight in 1996.

It can be argued that Dlamini laid the foundations for the club to achieve its successes in that season under McCarthy. It is also the calm and humble Dlamini who could have been a good option to steady the ship of the Durban based club following the recent departure of Brandon Truter.

Again, there is no problem with clubs hiring international coaches but it is quite frankly sad that many clubs will prefer hiring European managers with less than impressive CVs over local managers who are showing strong potential.

@EshlinV

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