Aces welcome skilled new coach

The former Kaizer Chiefs and Ajax Cape Town coach, Muhsin Ertugral has been confirmed as the new Mpumalanga Black Aces head coach.
Ertugral is taking over from Jacob Sakala who acted as stand-in coach after the home team parted ways with Clive Barker following a string of bad results.

Ertugral, who has not been in action since he left Ajax Cape Town last year to attend to family business in Turkey, was initially linked with Moroka Swallows but this deal never materialised.

Confirming this move, Aces spokesperson, Gordon Masondo, said the club was looking forward to a successful working relationship with him.

“Ertugral has signed with Aces but he will only officially start after the u/20 Soccer World Cup.
“He has, however, given the team some instructions so that when he returns, everything will be in place for him to be able to do his work,” said Masondo.

He pointed out that even though management didn’t give Ertugral orders, they expected a top-eight spot in the coming Absa Premiership table.

“Anything more than this will be a bonus,” said Masondo.
With Kaizer Chiefs, Ertugral picked up a number of trophies during his first stint, including the African Cup Winners’ Cup in 2001, and he was the only person to lead a South African team to this honour.

While appointed as manager of Tunisian side Club Africain, he was undefeated in the league in 2004, however, not winning the title that year, he had helped the team reach the African Cup Semifinals, only a year prior.

He helped Austrian side SV Mattersburg to reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 2004, and he finished third in the Egyptian Premier League with Ismaily in 2005, also making it to the CAF Champions League semi-finals with them that same year.

Ertugral took Ajax Cape Town to Absa Cup glory in 2007. That proved to be a successful season for Ajax under Ertugral as they finished fourth in the league.

“We would like to applaud Sakala who guided the team out of relegation during tough times.
“We hope that he will continue to serve the team with excellence as he has done on a number of occasions,” ended Masondo.