Former Orlando Pirates coach Ruud Krol, who won the domestic treble with the Buccaneers, has responded to rumours linking him with a return to Bucs.
The legendary Dutch coach was in charge of the Buccaneers between 2008 and 2011 and went on to win two Tunisian league championships with CS Sfaxien and Esperance, the CAF Confederation Cup, UNAF Club Cup with Raja Athletic Club and the Kuwait Premier League but has been out of the game for the best part of two years since leaving Kuwait SC.
Krol has been linked with the a return to South Africa almost every year since he left the Sea Robbers and more recently there’s been whispers that Pirates have offered him a chance to come back.
However, when asked by iDiski Times journalist Lorenz Kohler, Krol denied any contact with the Soweto giants.
“I don’t know [where the Pirates talk comes from],” he said.
“I worked three years there and built something up and of course the last year we were the top team, as you can see now a good example is Manchester United – you can never buy a team, you have to build it.”
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Krol, though, did confirm that he was approached by AmaZulu, but talks didn’t go much further after he questioned Benni McCarthy’s sacking in initial talks.
“No, no, no, I got a phone call a few weeks ago to ask if I am interested in AmaZulu because Benni McCarthy was leaving,” he added.
“They sent him away, I don’t know what happened but I could not understand and they could not tell me what happened to him. I think he did a fantastic job if I can say so from what I have followed from a distance.
“After that, I had two more calls and since then I’ve not heard anything from there, it wasn’t the President [Sandile Zungu] who called, it was a different person, you know how it works in South Africa, sometimes people phone you then they say they are friends with the president, that’s South Africa, you would know better than me on how it works sometimes.”
Story: Lorenz Kohler.
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