GOMEZ DA ROSA TO MULTITASK
The Botswana Football Association (BFA) has appointed French coach, Didier Gomes Da Rosa, who has a history of short-term coaching contracts with various teams. Since 2020, he has coached seven different teams, and Botswana will be his eighth team to coach. With such a varied background, it will be interesting to see how he approaches his new role.
Da Rosa’s history as a coach reveals a pattern of short-term contracts, since 2010, he has not remained with any team as head coach for more than one year.
It’s possible that his time with the team could be short-lived, as it has been with other clubs. He has now taken on the role of multi-task chief technical coach and head coach of the zebras, but even this is not a long-term contract. The BFA president has stated that Da Rosa’s performance will be reviewed in March 2024 to determine whether to continue working with him.
Despite his history of working with various teams on short-term contracts, Da Rosa’s new role with the Zebras comes with a great deal of responsibility and opportunity. He will not only be the head coach of the national team but will also oversee the development process and act as director of all national teams.
The appointment of Gomes Da Rosa is a significant step towards building a cohesive and successful national team. As the BFA president Maclean Letshwiti noted, Da Rosa will work with other coaches to ensure that the junior national teams are linked to the senior team, creating a strong foundation for future success. Letshwiti said that his extensive experience across Africa will be an asset to the development of Botswana’s football program.
“Gomes da Rosa will be responsible for creating a strong feeder system of the national team from the junior teams. During his stay here, he will also be the chief technical point man for the BFA. He will be
responsible for pushing the BFA vision and ambitions which include qualifying for the 2025 AFCON. Additionally, he will come up with a plan to get BFA to adopt more high-quality cup competitions in between the seasons,” Letshwiti said.
Letshwiti stated that his other mandate will be to ensure a continuous development of identified youth players at club level by giving them game time. Additionally, he shall be expected to ensure that the junior national team coaches get to understand and internalize player retention policies.
“BFA will put strong support structures around Didier Gomes da Rosa. As BFA, we have taken a decision that there shall be a total of five local coaches attached to Gomes da Rosa as understudies. This is so that we create a pool from which we could in future draw local skills and expertise,” he said.
Furthermore, the BFA has signed Memorandums of Understanding with Saudi Arabia and Morocco. They plan to support the Head Coach by taking national teams to these countries as part of their training and preparations.