It’s Renard or Broos for Bafana

FRENCHMAN Hervé Renard is almost certain to become the new Bafana Bafana coach after the Iran Football Association slapped Mozambique-born Carlos Queiroz with a hefty à7-million resignation clause just days after he had accepted the South African job.

Queiroz was to be introduced to the South African public as Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba’s successor a couple of days ago, but the Iran FA reneged on an earlier agreement with the well-travelled mentor and imposed the resignation clause at the last minute.

The Iranians insisted that they needed Queiroz for their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign and if the South African Football Association (Safa) really wanted to secure his services, they would have to pay the staggering amount.

Safa balked at the hefty clause and the race to the seat vacated by the sacked Mashaba is now between Renard and Cameroon’s Belgian mentor, Hugo Broos.

Safa president Danny Jordaan yesterday travelled to Zambia to attend the Under-20 African Nations Cup where the two coaches are also in attendance.

Jordaan will meet the two in Zambia in the coming days and finally bring to an end a search that has at times had more twists and turns than a soap opera.

Renard and Broos both wrote letters to Safa this week and indicated their interest in coaching a team they described as the “biggest brand” on the continent.

The Safa technical committee had recommended Queiroz for the job and the 64-year-old mentor, who served as Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United and has also coached Portugal and Real Madrid, agreed to return to a job he occupied between 2000 and 2002.

The Iranians had given him their blessing to speak to Safa and it seemed the stars had aligned perfectly, given that his daughter goes to school in SA and he also owns property in this country. But his employers pulled the rug from under his feet at the last minute.

Broos, 64, won African continental football’s biggest prize with Cameroon last month while Renard, 48, achieved the feat twice with Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast in 2015.