Brave Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet has denied applying for the Zimbabwean coaching position saying that he intends to fulfill his contract with Namibia’s Brave Warriors.
Speculation in the media has been rife that Saintfiet has applied for the Zimbabwean national coaching job, with the Zimbabwean The Standard newspaper reporting that he was one of six coaches who had applied for the job, while the Zimbabwean Chronicle even reported that he had been appointed as Zimbabwe’s new coach.
Saintfiet however told Namibia Sport that the rumours were unfounded.
“I have a contract with the Namibia Football Association till 2012 and I intend to fulfill that. I have also heard these rumours with one paper even suggesting that I have been appointed as Zimbabwe’s coach, but they are unfounded because as you can see, I am still here with the Brave Warriors,” he said.
Saintfiet was speaking to Namibia Sport in Accra, Ghana, shortly after the team’s arrival from Gambia where they lost their 2012 AFCON qualifying match 3-1 to Gambia’s Scorpions on Saturday.
Saintfiet did not deny being approached by Zimbabwe but said that this happened all the time and that he had received several other offers as well.
“I regularly receive offers through my agent, and I have turned down several offers since I took up the post of Brave Warriors coach in 2008. At the moment I have also been approached by a club from Rwanda as well as another African Football Association, but I have not followed them up. At the moment I am only interested in fulfilling my mission and taking the Brave Warriors to the 2012 AFCON finals,” he said.
Saintfiet’s task will however be more difficult now after Namibia lost to Gambia on Saturday. With Mauritania also withdrawing from the group, Namibia will now have to win their home matches against Gambia and Burkina Faso and hope for a draw or a win away to Burkina Faso to stand a chance of qualifying for AFCON 2012.
Saintfiet has been linked to other coaching positions in the past. In January 2010 a Nigerian newspaper reported that he had applied for the Super Eagles’ coaching position but Saintfiet dismissed these reports as untrue.
Nigeria’s coach at the time, Shaibu Amodu was subsequently dismissed and replaced by Swedish coach Lars Lagerbeck who took them to the 2010 World Cup.