FORMER Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa appears to have returned into the frame to take over as coach of the Malawi senior football team following reports suggesting the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has reignited interest to hire a foreign coach.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
FAM proposed to appoint an expatriate coach to preside over the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers as well as the African Nations Championships (Chan).
But lack of support for funding by their cash-strapped government culminated in the football mother body issuing a statement announcing it had abandoned the idea of hiring a foreign coach.
However, latest reports from Malawi suggest FAM have rekindled their search for a foreign trainer, as they bid to make it to the continental finals set for Cameroon in two years’ time.
Already, the soccer mother body has appointed Gerald Phiri, the first assistant, on a one-year contract to lay the ground work for the incoming coach, who is expected this week.
Pasuwa had been touted to take over the biggest coaching job in Malawian football after he won a lot of admirers in that country during last year’s Afcon qualifiers.
The Warriors overcame the Flames 2-1 in their backyard in the qualifiers before completing a double over them in Harare in June with a 3-0 victory that sealed Zimbabwe’s place at the 2017 Afcon finals held in Gabon in January.
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It was the first time since 2006 that the Warriors made it to the biggest continental soccer showcase.
FAM secretary-general Alfred Gunda was quoted as saying they were expecting an expatriate coach.
Pasuwa’s manager Gibson Mahachi, however, said yesterday FAM were yet to get back to them since inquiries were made over his client’s availability last month.
“We haven’t heard anything from them (Malawi). Our last communication was when they asked about the availability of the coach, to which we provided the details,” he said.
“Remember there are so many coaches who applied for the job and we wouldn’t know who they are appointing.”
Several coaches had been linked with the job, with former Warriors goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar and former coach Ian Gorowa among those reported to have been in the frame.
The names of former Zambia coach Honour Janza and Paolo Duarte had also been bandied about, although Pasuwa appeared to be the leading candidate.
