It’s a minefield

From Page 12 the 2002 World Cup finals in one of the greatest shocks of the tournament, Cisse has earned his stripes and his Lions of Teranga won all their six qualifying games ahead of the 2017 Nations Cup finals.

His leadership qualities and great character came to the fore when, just three months after that 2002 World Cup show in Japan and South Korea, Cisse kept his focus to keep playing for his club despite losing a dozen close family members who perished at sea in a Senegalese ferry disaster off the coast of Gabon which claimed more than 1 800 people.

Cisse was handed a four-year contract but it will be reviewed after the 2017 Nations Cup finals in Gabon where his Lions of Teranga will arrive as one of the favourites to win the tournament after they soared to the top of the rankings on the continent in the latest FIFA rankings.

Cisse and Pasuwa are four of the local coaches out to make a big impression for African gaffers just four years after the legendary Steve Keshi made a case for them by becoming the first black coach from the continent to lead his country to success at the Nations Cup finals in more than 20 years after guiding the Super Eagles of Nigeria to victory in South Africa.

The other local coaches are Guinea Bissau’s Cande, the 68-year-old who had a spell playing in Portugal, but made his name coaching clubs in his tiny homeland of about 1.7 million people, which is one of the 10 poorest nations in the world, to success with Sporting Bissau winning five successive league titles under his guidance.

Cande, unlike Pasuwa, had the luxury of calling a 23-man team made up entirely of players based in Europe.

Guinea Bissau’s success in their 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers was hailed as one of the finest stories in African football and the country’s football leader was honoured by CAF president Issa Hayatou recently for transforming the country’s football fortunes.

The other home-based coach is the DRC’s Ibenge, the 55-yearold tactician who played his football in Belgium and France before coming home to revolutionise coaching in his country, leading AS Vita to the final of the African Champions League three years ago, after edging Pasuwa’s Dynamos along the way, and then guiding his nation to the CHAN title in Rwanda last year.

He was named by the influential football magazine, FourFourTwo, as one of the best 50 coaches in the world after leading the DRC Leopards to third place in the last Nations Cup finals.

Hector Cuper, the Argentine who coached Inter Milan to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, is in charge of Egypt while Avram Grant, a losing finalist in the UEFA Champions League with Chelsea, is in charge of the Black Stars of Ghana.

The Coaches In Gabon ZIMBABWE — CALLISTO PASUWA Pasuwa (Zimbabwe, 46 years)

GABON — Jose Antonio Camacho (Spain, former Real Madrid coach, 61 years)

MOROCCO — Herve Renard (France, former winner of the Nations Cup with Zambia, 48 years)

ALGERIA — Georges Leekens (Belgium, 67 years)

CAMEROON — Hugo Broos (Belgium, 64 years)

BURKINA FASO — Paulo Duarte (Portugal, 47 years)

TUNISIA — Henryk Kasperczack (Poland, 70 years)

COTE (France, 57 years)

TOGO — Claude Le Roy (France, 68 years)

UGANDA — Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic (Serbia, 47 years) GHANA — Avram Grant (Israel, 61 years) EGYPT — Hector Cuper (Argentina, 61 years)

GUINEA BISSAU — Baciro Cande (Guinea Bissau, 68 years)

SENEGAL — Aliou Cisse (Senegal, 40 years) DRC — Florent Ibenge ( DRC, 55 years) MALI — Alain Giresse (France, 55 years)

D’IVOIRE

— Michel Dussuyer