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My fist was still up after punching the air at the news that former Ivorian international defender Kolo Touré had been roped in by Brendan Rodgers as his assistant at Leicester City when a blow to the pit of my stomach took the wind from my sails.
Rodgers made the announcement after being revealed as the new manager at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday following the firing of Claude Puel.
The pair’s relationship dates back to their days at Liverpool. Rodgers had previously roped in Touré as his second-in-command at Scottish side Celtic.
You might be asking yourself what the source of my unbridled jubilation was.
Well, my reaction was born from the fact that, from today, we will see one of our own – an African – sitting in the dugout when the Foxes visit Watford at Vicary Road.
Being an assistant manager at the Premier League, one of the best leagues in the world, is no mean feat.
One just hopes that the Ivorian becomes a great ambassador for Africa on this road less travelled.
The trend has been that European coaches come to this continent to “teach” Africans how to play football the “proper” way.
Even here in South Africa, you can count on one hand (probably not even using all of those five fingers) the mentors who have worked in other African countries, and those would be mostly our neighbours, such as eSwatini, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana.
Well Touré was no slouch as a footballer. One doesn’t have to look any further than the clubs for which he has played – Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, before crossing the border to Celtic in 2016. He bagged the Premier League title with Arsenal and City.
He made his debut for his native land against Rwanda in 2000.
In 2006, he featured in all his country’s five matches at the Afcon finals in Egypt when they finished as runners up to the hosts.
After announcing his intention to call time on his international career in December 2014, he went on to slot in one of the goalsin his country’s 9-8 penalty shoot-out against Ghana at the 2015 Afcon final.
He took the seventh spot-kick and thus ended his colourful career on a high.
While celebrating Touré’s appointment, I must admit to feeling a bit of envy when I mused about what it would take for South Africa to see one of their home-grown coaching talents grace some of the dugouts in the elite European leagues.
I immediately called myself to order. I remembered Mark Anthony’s prose in his farewell speech to Julius Caesar that “ambition should be made of sterner stuff”.
I questioned myself about how I could nurse such lofty ambitions when South Africa as a country can hardly produce a footballer to play in one of the five top European leagues.
I was deflated!
Ah! At the top, I mentioned how I was brought down to mother earth with a thud that left me gasping for air after getting a high from the positive news from the opiate of the masses.
A day or so after this good news, Fifa, the world football governing body, announced the life banishment of a Tanzanian referee.
Fifa said: “The adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee has found Mr Oden Charles Mbaga, a referee affiliated to the Tanzania Football Federation, guilty of having accepted bribes in violation of the Fifa Code of Ethics.”
There we go again, I thought!
No! No! No!
Not another African in a scandal involving bribes and match-fixing. But there it was as the whistleman was handed a life ban on all football matters plus a $200 000 (R2.8 million) fine for “accepting illegal payments”.
Worse, he becomes the second referee from this continent this year – a year that is only two months old – to suffer this fate after Ibrahim Chaibou from Niger was banned for match-fixing.
So the pair join the forever growing list of shame of African football officials who have been banned for sentences ranging from a few years to life.
When will this stop?
Such developments leave an indelible mark on African football and must be stopped. Now!
- smseleku@citypress.co.za
- Follow me on Twitter @Sbu_Mseleku
