Rollers linked with Burundi coach
Kabelo Boranabi | Saturday July 22, 2023 06:00
This week, the club announced an addition to the technical team with the appointment of former Gaborone United (GU) head coach, Innocent Morapedi but could not provide details on the head coach.
The veteran tactician joins as an assistant coach and will work alongside Oarabile ‘Wilshere’ Seabo and the head coach after he signed a two-year contract with the club. Popa said a new head coach is expected in the country no later than July 31. “We had wished to be with the head coach today as we unveil Morapedi to you, unfortunately, we could not.
We have been delayed by some paperwork and I hope that should be concluded soon. So we are expecting our new head coach to arrive in the country before the end of this month and we will unveil him to the public by then,” Rollers’ chairman, Bafana Pheto said in a press briefing this week. As the club leadership remains tight-lipped over the new head coach, Rollers continue to be linked with Burundi national team coach, Etienne Ndayiragije.
Media reports in East Africa suggest that Ndayiragije will vacate the Burundi national team post after he inked a two-year deal with an option to extend by a further year with the Blues. Ndayiragije previously held club-coaching jobs at Vital’O in Burundi and Tanzania’s Azam while he has also led Tanzania national team. It is not the first time he has been associated with a local post as he was previously linked with the Zebras’ job before the appointment of Mogomotsi Mpote. But Rollers squashed the Ndayiragije links and said their new man remains a secret.
“We saw the reports on social media and we would like to advise you to ignore those. As per our tradition, once everything is formalised with the new coach, we will let the public know. We are not surprised though, every time we have been linked with a lot of people. Recently there were rumours of Mpote and that we will be playing Dynamos. So I would like to urge you to wait for the club to announce,” Pheto responded to the new coach's inquiries on Wednesday. The Rollers technical team has seen three departures in the off-season including, Traguil and performance analyst, Eduardo Lazaro Ramon Leiva. The team’s fitness coach, Tshepo Goitsemang also left the club this week.
The new coach will join Morapedi, Seabo, goalkeeper coach, David Puso, and Kenneth Dambe, who serves as performance and video analyst. Meanwhile, Nico United have appointed former Extension Gunners coach, Wame Mokoke as their head coach on a two-year deal. Mandla Mpofu has joined Sua Flamingoes on a one-year contract following his departure from Masitaoka.