AmaZulu president Sandile Zungu has explained why he has roped in former Bafana Bafana captain Bongani Khumalo, saying he’s only assisting him with interviews.
While it has been reported that Khumalo himself will become the club’s new Sporting Director, Zungu told this publication that the former Tottenham Hotspur, Bidvest Wits and SuperSport United defender is not employed by the club but comes in to help in the interview process.
Those interviews that Khumalo, who called it quits a few seasons ago, helps to conduct are for the new coach, general manager, sporting director and team manager, amongst others.
The Usuthu president added there might be an opportunity to work within the club in future but this is a start of building relationship with Khumalo, who will forever be remembered for scoring for Bafana in the 2-1 victory over France in Bloemfontein in the 2010 FIFA World Cup last group stage match.
“Khumalo was helping us with interviews, we roped him in to assist us in assessing the coaches that we want,” explains Zungu.
“He will also assist us further [in interviews with] like director of football, team manager and all that. But he’s not a full-time employee and has no interest in any of the positions.
“It’s not ad hoc, but obviously we want to build a relationship with him and no one knows where it may lead, where it may end.”
All these posts are vacant after Usuthu parted ways with Ayanda Dlamini, who was the caretaker coach, Romain Folz, who was head coach and then president’s advisor, Qedi Dlamini, who was a team manager, and Ayanda Mkhize, who was a team scout, all left after the club disappointingly finished 12th on the DStv Premiership table last season.
AmaZulu are yet to announce a new coach, with names such as Luc Eymael, Pablo Franco Martin and Dutch coach Alfons Groenendijk linked with the club, and Zungu insisted the new coach will be announced soon.
“There are a lot of reports about who we are appointing, sometimes you scratch your head and ask ‘where does this coming from now?’,” he added.
“But we should be announcing the coach very soon.”
Meanwhile, Dlamini, despite being no longer the club coach, is still part of the Usuthu’s ecosystem and Zungu said he may need him in future, just like before after he was demoted to be assistant coach in the DStv Diski Challenge following the appointment of Benni McCarthy in December 2020, with latter arriving with his own team.
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AmaZulu players are back for medical checks-up, which were done at Prime Institute at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday, and that will be followed up with the team start of the pre-season camp in the next coming days.
Story by Robin-Duke Madlala (@duke_robin).
