BY FORTUNE MBELE
HIGHLANDERS assistant Joel Luphahla will take charge of the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League tie against ZPC Kariba at Nyamhunga Stadium tomorrow, with Bosso expected to announce a substantive coach next week.
The Bulawayo giants host Harare City at Barbourfields Stadium next game and the new gaffer is expected to be in place.
Chief executive Ronald Moyo said they had received more than 20 curriculum vitaes (CVs), but only five local coaches had applied.
Highlanders are in the hunt for a new coach after firing Mandla Mpofu and his team of Bekithemba Ndlovu and Julius Ndlovu following a string of poor results.
Moyo yesterday confirmed Luphahla takes charge in the interim while the club goes through the processes of finding a suitable candidate.
“The position (of the head coach) is still vacant. We have seen a number of coaches showing interest in taking that post. We have received a number of CVs, including those from our former coaches whom I won’t mention by name.
We are still going through the internal process of hiring a coach. We have received a lot of CVs, so you have to do your homework to come up with the best candidate for the job,” he said.
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“For now, we have close to 20 CVs and some are still to come. The majority of the CVs are for foreigners and I think we have five locals, but we want to make sure we make the correct decision.”
Some of the coaches believed to have lodged their CVs are former coaches Briton Mark Harrison, Zambian Kelvin Kaindu, Dutchman Hendrikus Pieter de Jongh and Egyptian Mohamed Fathi, while new applicants include Mexican Javier Martinez Espinosa and Serbian Heric Vladislav, among others.
Among the local applicants is Philani “Beefy” Ncube, who recently parted ways with Bulawayo City.
On Luphahla, Moyo said he still does not hold the pre-requisite Caf A qualifications to sit on the bench as head coach.
“Luphahla is in charge of the team and what we can assure you is that come Saturday, we are going to have an interim technical staff, good enough to go there and try to collect the three points. We want to take this opportunity to calm down the nerves of our fans that everything is in order.
This is the last match that we are going to play without the substantive coach,” he said.
“He (Luphahla) has been sitting on the bench and we are confident that everything is in order.
There are internal processes that we cannot disclose for now, but what we know is that come Saturday, he will be sitting on the bench. We are talking about a coach who was there during Mandla’s time.”
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