Bax-ter the future
FAROUK KHAN: CARLOS QUEIROZ AND HERVE RENARD CAME WITH A LOT OF EXPECTATIONS
Baxter’s local knowledge swung decision.
Stuart Baxter’s intimate knowledge of the national game and its players is one of the main reasons that the South African Football Association ultimately picked him as the new Bafana Bafana head coach.
Farouk Khan, part of the committee set up by Safa to decide on a new coach, yesterday gave the Saturday Citizen some insight into Baxter’s appointment, also acknowledging that the association didn’t have the financial muscle to hire big-name coaches like Carlos Queiroz and Herve Renard.
“There were other candidates considered,” said Khan,
“Like Carlos Queiroz and Herve Renard, but they came with a lot of expectations, and with commitments to their current employees. When Queiroz’s employees (the Iranian Football Association) heard about Bafana, they said they would sue him.
“You have to take into account the rand-dollar exchange rate. You have to accept the fact that these coaches are expensive. Renard has won the Afcon (twice), Safa doesn’t have the money to compete in the market for those coaches.”
And so, in the end, Safa went for Baxter, who was on the original list of candidates drawn up by the selection committee. When Baxter arrived to coach Bafana Bafana in 2004, he was new to the South African game. But this time Safa are hiring him on the back of an impressive trophy haul in the domestic game, with Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United.
“Baxter did not have such a bad first stint with Bafana when he qualified them for the (2006) Africa Cup of Nations, but did not qualify them for the (2006) World Cup,” added Khan.
“We felt like he had what it took because he understands our players. We would have had a challenge bringing in a coach who doesn’t understand South African players. Knowing the culture equipped him more than other candidates.
“It is not like Stuart is just the left-overs, we felt he was ideally suited based on what we had.”
Khan believes Baxter can succeed in his new spell with Bafana, and get them to the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia. But the former Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach stressed that he must also get the right technical team to work with him on the road ahead.
“I think we have a phenomenal team with players like Keagan Dolly, Bongani Zungu and Itumeleng Khune, who is a world-class goalkeeper. We can compete with the best in Africa … (but) it is also about if he surrounds himself with a good technical team. No national team in the world relies on one person, it is a collective.”