Ajax connection brings City owner and coach back together again
John Comitis made good on a long-standing promise when he hired Jan Olde Riekerink to take the reins at Cape Town City.
Cape Town City chairman John Comitis with head coach City Jan Olde Riekerink (Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix)
Comitis and Riekerink go back a long way, to the late 1990s/early 2000’s when Comitis was at Ajax Cape Town and Riekerink was coach at Ajax Amsterdam.
“We had a good relationship, I said to him back then, tongue-incheek, that one day he was going to coach my team, and I called him on Monday, and he said he would do it!” said Comitis, now the Cape Town City chairman. The 56 year-old Riekerink has had a well-travelled coaching career, that has lasted almost 25 years, taking him from his native Holland to Belgium, Portugal, the Ukraine, China and Turkey. He has been a free agent since resigning as coach of Dutch side Heerenveen in April.
Comitis believes that Riekerink’s experience will stand City in good stead after the hard decision to sack Benni McCarthy, following a run of poor results.
“We have a fantastic squad, we need to move to the next stage, and we needed someone who has been there and done it,” said Comitis.
“Unfortunately results didn’t go our way with Benni – it is tough at the top, but it is professional sport and you can’t pretend results are not significant – I have the utmost love and care for Benni and it was a very diffciult decision.”
Riekerink was introduced to the City squad before Wednesday evening’s 5-3 Absa Premiership win at home to Polokwane City, only City’s second win of the season. He sat in the stands as he awaits his work permit, which Comitis said should be there by the time the November international break ends, meaning Riekerink will also not be on the sidelines for Sunday’s league game at Black Leopards, but will almost certainly be officially in charge by the time they play at Bloemfontein Celtic on November 27th.
The City CEO, meanwhile, when asked if there was any mandate for his new coach, responded: “At this stage it is just a full assessment of our structures, starting from the youth up, and giving him the reins to put his footprint on it, and take our structure to the next level.”
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