The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has shortlisted at least four foreign coaches for the position of head coach at the Zambia senior men’s national football team.
Those in the running for the Chipolopolo top job are Portuguese Rui Aguas, Argentine Esteban Becker Churukián, Northern Irishman John Mckinstry and Belgian Sven Vandenbroek.
At this stage unconfirmed reports suggest that Vandenbroek is the frontrunner.
The four were selected following a process which the FAZ said included: “The ‘technical evaluation’ of unsolicited applications as well as the coach experts reviewing the requisite professional coaching qualifications, experience, ambition, knowledge of Zambian football as well as possessing a great capacity for adaptation and ability to work in a competitive team with an immediate target of qualifying the Zambia national team to the AFCON 2019.”
Here below are the brief profiles of the four whose names have been revealed:
ESTEBAN BECKER
Following several stints with Spanish lower division teams, Esteban Becker, 53, first came on the African football scene when he was named Equatorial Guinea’s women’s team head coach in 2012, leading them to the African Womens Championship title in that same year.
The Equatorial Guinea FA later gave him the role of technical director, the position he held from 2013 to 2015 before naming him head coach of the men’s team in 2015, taking them to the semi-finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
JOSÉ RUI LOPES ÁGUAS
José Rui Lopes Águas, 58, is in his second spell as head coach of Cape Verde, his first having been between 2014 and 2016.
Aguas took Cape Verde to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, qualifying for the competition ahead of Zambia from Group F. Both Zambia and Cape Verde needing a win to progress to the knockout stage, were eliminated from that competition after playing out a goalless draw on 26 January 2015.
Aguas is a former Portugal assistant coach, and also held similar positions at Vitoria Setubal and Braga. He was head coach at Estoril and Maritimo.
JONATHAN MCKINSTRY
Jonathan Mckinstry, 32, is a UEFA Pro License holder and has previous experience coaching African national football teams.
He coached Sierra Leone from April 2013 to September 2014. He became head coach of the Rwanda men’s football team in March 2015 until August 2016.
Some of his achievements include reaching the quarter-finals of the 2016 African Nations Championship and the final of the 2015 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, both with the Rwanda national football team.
He had a short coaching spell in the Lithuanian A-Lyga where he coached Kauno Žalgiris between July 2017 and January 2018.
SVEN VANDENBROEK
Vandenbroek, 38, is a former assistant coach of the Cameroon men’s national football team, the position he held from February 2016 to February 2018.
He was part of the successful Cameroon side which lifted the Africa Cup of Nations under head coach Hugo Broos in Gabon in 2017.
He has African club coaching experience with Tunisian side Club Africain where he was an assistant coach for three months in 2013. He had coaching spells in Greece and his native Belgium.
Give the Job to the man from Portugal, he has the experience.
Wooow now we making progress on the shortlisted,can Sombody remind me if it z true the Argentine reach the Semis in 2015?? Otherwise he has less experience at53…
Do you think the Portuguese who i think z the best carndidate will dump Cape Verd for the chipolopolo job?i dont think so lets not waste tym on him…
Mcinstry the youngman has all it takes from the education ambition language tho less experience he knows african football via headcoach Rwanda,i remember you could see technical brilliance Rwanda at the tym jst didnt have talent i believ in Zambia he could do well…
The Belgium gud experience tho mainly as an assistant?
I dont kw abt language barrier here but for me he z second to the Northn irishman
Its only Jonatha Mcinstry whose education has been highlighted wat abt the rest?? We need educated coaches i mean qualified tactician look at the world cup football is no more names but gud technic and tactics doing the right thing at the right time..african teams are poor at defending and attacking setplays..why? Ignorance give the job to the Irishman!
Non is Excellent!
Progress at last. May the best candidate be given the job.Personally, I would have gone for Jose Rui Lopes Aguas,he seems to have a richer experience than the other three candidates. But I guess the experts know best…..
give us a new coach!!!
give us a new coach!!!
Job to be given to the Man from Portugal.At the moment , we can’t give it to a Zambian including me.
Sven Vandenbroeck has been given the job next week he will be unveild
wats yo source?
My friends at Football House
I like the Portugal’s man I think he can do better
Sven Vandenbroeck is the best man for the Job. I Just hope he gets his player Select right.
I hope he can get some of our players in the diaspora in the National Team.
I like Sven vandenbroack,because he did a very good job to selected a very good team although he didn’t reached up to our target, but he tried by all means the reason is that he came late .so if we give him another chance he can do much better