I know how much Nabi was going to get from Chiefs

It’s been over four years since Luc Eymael coached in the PSL, when he was on the bench for Black Leopards in 2019. After leaving Mzansi, he went on to join Tanzanian giants Young Africans in January 2020, although his spell with the club ended disappointingly after he was accused of making racist remarks to the team’s fans. On two occasions in 2020, Chippa United tried to appoint the Belgian mentor as a member of their technical team but the appointment was rejected by the South African Football Association and other stakeholders. In March 2021, the former Free State Stars coach was cleared to work in Mzansi again by SAFA, but he has had no luck in getting a club in the PSL ever since. The 64-year-old has had talks with AmaZulu FC and Richards

Bay FC, among other clubs, but to no avail. Currently in the D emocratic Republic of the Congo where he is in charge of Aigles du Congo, Eymael opens up to Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina in this interview about the struggles he encountered in searching for a club, as well as the failed talks with the two KwaZuluNatal sides. He also talks about his conversation with Tunisian coach Nasreddine Nabi on how close he was to coaching Kaizer Chiefs.

Masebe Qina: Coach, long time. What has it been like at your new club Aigles du Congo?

Luc Eymael: I have been with the club since January, and I came here to help the team with their participation in the play-offs. The way they do the play-offs here is that the first four teams from Lubumbashi compete against the first four from Kinshasa. During my first time here in 2010, I was with a well-known team, AS Vita Club. But I am now with a new team that is only seven months old. It’s a team with a lot of very young players and the oldest one in the group is only 24 years old. It has been an advantage and disadvantage at the same time. The advantage of the youth is that they can push until the end, but the disadvantage is their lack of experience. Sometimes they can make mistakes that cost the team, but the chairman is ambitious, and he understands that it won’t be easy. We are competing against teams with experience of playing in CAF competitions and it’s not easy and all the games are very tough.

MQ: What would you tell us in comparing the league with the PSL?

LE:

TP Mazembe is a team that is always competing in the CAF Champions League, just like (Mamelodi) Sundowns, and therefore there are very good teams here. There is AS Vita Club and AS Maniema Union and they have some good players. The only thing that hasn’t been great is the condition of the pitches. Their pitches are not so great and only Mazembe play in a stadium with natural grass. Their pitches are not as good as in South Africa and they are not well-maintained. When I was here previously, the number of fans at the stadiums would be somewhere around 16 000 and 19 000, but now the maximum would be 10 000. And I don’t know what the cause of that could be. But our chairman has started to build his own facilities and it should be ready in the next three months.

MQ: Why does it seem like it has been difficult for you to get another opportunity in the PSL in recent years?

LE:

You will have to ask that question to the relevant people. I don’t have a response, you know. But what I know is that the truth came out about the story with Yanga (Young Africans). If somebody is at fault for something, you would never want to pay him US$165 000 (R3 075 501). You would never want to pay that kind of money to somebody you accuse of the things I was accused of. I have been receiving a lot of support from the people of South Africa but there are others who still want to tarnish my name. Only God knows what will happen in the future. I am still following the league very closely and I’m still in touch with a lot of players that I coached in the PSL. Some of the players I coached in South Africa have gone on to play for the national team and I still have a good relationship with them. We’ll see and in life you can never say never.

MQ: What happened during your discussions with AmaZulu?

LE:

I really didn’t understand what happened there. I had two fantastic meetings with the club, and the first one was with the chairman (AmaZulu president, Sandile Zungu), and the other was with a member of the board at the club. They were very interested to sign me, and the chairman asked the agent to send the contract and we all saw the contract. After that, they made a U-turn. They changed their minds in that they decided to recruit Mr. Pablo (Franco Martin). With that said, I don’t think he (Martin) is doing a bad job with the team.

MQ: We understand that Richards Bay FC also showed interest in you at some point.

LE: Yes, after AmaZulu I was in touch with Richards Bay but with the club there was no agreement at all. I spoke with Chippa (United) again, and then with Richards Bay again, but nothing materialised. There are offers that I cannot accept. I rejected several offers because I didn’t agree with a lot of people. You cannot pay me in 2023 or 2024 what I was earning in your club in 2014 or 2016, you understand what I mean? It’s not normal. For example, if you look at South Africa now, the rand is no longer having the same value as before. When I was at Polokwane City or Free State Stars, R1000 was equivalent to 66 euros. Now, R1000 is equivalent to 49 euros and that’s a big difference.

MQ: Were you happy with the offer from AmaZulu?

LE:

Yeah, I was happy, for sure. But with the other teams, we didn’t agree on financial terms and that’s not because I wanted to be difficult or something. Even if I don’t have a contract, the one that I get should be a reasonable contract.

MQ: Are you an expensive coach? LE:

I am not expensive at all. When I look around at the other coaches, I can tell you that I am not expensive at all. I know how much (Nasreddine) Nabi was going to get in the offer he got from (Kaizer) Chiefs. I know how much other coaches were earning at several teams, and therefore I’m not expensive. You must understand that we are foreigners, and for a foreigner there should be a difference because you have to convert (the money) into a different currency. Also, you have to understand that some coaches in the PSL … Well, I don’t know if there is one coach who has the

UEFA Pro Licence like I have. I acquired mine in Belgium, and Hugo Broos also has a UEFA Pro Licence. I know that some coaches have been attending classes for their CAF A Licence or something like that. I don’t know if Ernst Middendorp does have a Pro Licence or not* but I’m not an expensive coach. I know that some people were criticising Hugo Broos because he was suggesting that coaches need to have these qualifications. I know that in the PSL there are former agents who are coaches and some guys who were team managers but are coaches now. I won’t mention any names and I don’t want to undermine anybody. But I see that there are plans for the federation to introduce a minimum requirement on the qualifications that the coaches must have going forward.

MQ: Would anyone be correct in assuming that the former “team manager” you are talking about is Mr. Morgan Mammila? LE:

Like I said, I wouldn’t want to mention names but as you can also see, he is now involved in coaching. I think he is now a technical director or something like that at Chippa. It’s not only him, there are a few others. I know of an agent who wanted to introduce me to South African football when Johnny Mogaladi (Polokwane City chairman) brought me. The guy introduced me, and he was an agent, but he has been a coach since then. I won’t mention his name, but he knows who he is.

At some of the teams I worked, team managers became coaches, and you just have to think, and you will know who I am talking about. One thing you need to know is that with a CAF C Licence in Europe you cannot coach even children older than 10 years old. With a CAF B licence, you can coach children from 10 years old to Division Four of football in Europe. From Division Three to Second Division, you would need a CAF A Licence and for anything above that you need a Pro Licence. I don’t expect things to be like that in South Africa but I’m explaining to you how things are in Europe.

MQ: You spoke about coach Nasreddine Nabi and Chiefs. Can you give us an estimation in figures of how much he was probably offered as you say you know?

LE:

It’s not my job to say how much he was offered. You would need to speak to the agent who wanted to place him at Chiefs for that kind of information. Nabi is a friend of mine, and we did our Pro Licences together, but it is not my role to mention how much he would have earned at Chiefs.

MQ: How did he feel when he didn’t get the Chiefs job?

LE:

After he didn’t get that job, he called me, and he told me that he was in touch with FAR Rabat (of Morocco). He asked me if it was right of him not to take that job (at Chiefs) because of his staff (that wouldn’t have been part of the deal, as per reports). I told him that if it was me, I would have gone there without my staff because I know how things are done in the South African league. But I understood him because he never worked in South Africa. It’s like Pitso (Mosimane), wherever he goes, he’s got his staff following him. Look, and this is not a matter of arrogance or what, but I have seen coaches taking their staff with to clubs but when the head coach gets fired his assistant becomes the caretaker coach or something. What is that? It’s not fair. If your head coach is not good enough, you’ve got to fire the entire staff. When I worked in South Africa, I had my staff from there and when I went to Yanga, I took two people from South Africa to work with there. I do understand though that for him, it would have been a handicap because he doesn’t understand the mentality of South African people and how they react. He’s doing a good job at FAR Rabat.

MQ: Did you have any formal talks about the Chiefs job?

LE:

I have never been approached personally by anyone at Kaizer Chiefs. I just had an exchange on email with Kaizer (Motaung) Junior but what we said will remain between me and him. I know that when an agent says something to you, it can be right, or it can be wrong. I’m not saying that all the agents are wrong but when it is the chairman of the club who is calling you, you know that it is true. Yes, an agent told me (about reported Chiefs interest), but Kaizer Jnr. or Bobby Motaung never called me.

MQ: Just for clarity, coach, you sent an email to check if Chiefs would be interested in your services?

LE:

No, no, no, it’s not like that. No. An agent told me there was interest from Chiefs and all those things, and I sent an email to check if that was (the) right information. The thing is, most of the time what agents say and the truth are not always the same. If there was any truth to that, Kaizer Jnr. or Bobby Motaung would have called me.

MQ: It was good catching up. Hope to chat again soon, Luc.

LE: Thank you, bye.