Five coaches who could be next up at Kaizer Chiefs

Molefi Ntseki’s sacking on Monday was, frankly, nowhere near as surprising as Kaizer Chiefs’ decision to appoint him as their head coach at the start of the season.

As soon as Cavin Johnson came in as Head of Youth and Development academy it seemed the writing was on the wall for Ntseki, and a few defeats later, and lo and behold, it is Johnson who has taken over as interim head coach.

It remains to be seen if Johnson gets the job full time, though he has to be one of the candidates, especially if he does well. Here, Phakaaathi takes a look at five men who Chiefs might be targeting after the axe fell on Ntseki.

Cavin Johnson

Johnson has been handed the job on an interim basis and it remains to be seen how well he does, with an Amakhosi side that has to be low on morale following a poor start to the season. Still, if Johnson does lift Chiefs up the DStv Premiership table, and do well in the Nedbank Cup, he becomes an obvious candidate to take the job on a permanent basis. This is, after all, a man with a great reputation for brining through younger players, including one Steven Pienaar, and with vast experience in the DStv Premiership. Johnson has coached at Platinum Stars, SuperSport United, AmaZulu and Black Leopards, with varying degrees of success. Most notably, he had a runners-up finish in the league with Platinum Stars in the 2012/13 season. His last job on the bench was as an assistant coach to Pitso Moismane at Al Ahly, a post he left in 2021. Coaching at Ahly should certainly have given Johnson a taste of what it is like to coach at the most popular club in the country.

Manqoba Mngqithi

Perhaps the most interesting of the potential candidates to take over at Chiefs, Mngqithi is seen by some to be wasting his talents at Mamelodi Sundowns, where he has effectively been demoted from co-head coach with Rulani Mokwena to assistant coach. Mngqithi’s contract at Sundowns, however, does come to an end next year and it could well be that Chiefs decide to make a move for a man who has spent so many years honing his craft at the best team in the country. Mngqithi may well also decide that he wants a new challenge, as Steve Komphela did this season when he left Sundowns to take over as the new Swallows head coach.

Muhsin Ertugral

The well-travelled Turkish coach Muhsin Ertugral has had two previous spells at Kaizer Chiefs, famously winning the Mandela Cup with Amakhosi in 2001, still the only piece of continental silverware that Chiefs have lifted. He also won several domestic knockout trophies with Chiefs and while he never won the DStv Premiership, Amakhosi right now could do with any sort of trophy to lift their spirits. Ertugral has not been involved in South African top flight coaching, however, since

he was sacked by Maritzburg United in January 2019. He has since been a consultant to the Turkish national team, and even if Chiefs want him back, will Ertugral really want Chiefs back?

Nasreddine Nabi

Nabi was strongly linked to the Chiefs head coach position before it was given to Molefi Ntseki, and it was even said that he left Tanzanian side Young Africans expecting to get the Amakhosi post. It was, however, suggested that Nabi’s financial demands were ultimately too high, and he has ended up in Morocco with FAR Rabat. FAR, however, have already crashed out of this season’s Caf Champions League and it remains to be seen just how long Nabi survives in Morocco. Could Chiefs open negotiations again with the Algerian?

Pitso Mosimane

Pitso Mosimane was also linked with the Kaizer Chiefs job, before he took up a post in the UAE Pro League with Al Wahda at the start of this season. ‘Jingles’ has not coached in South Africa since leaving Mamelodi Sundowns to take over at Al Ahly in 2020, moving from there to Saudi Arabia, and then on to the UAE. Mosimane has previously said he would talk to Chiefs if they approached him about being their head coach, but there is a financial reality here, in terms of whether Amakhosi will be able to match the kind of salaries Mosimane is likely to be picking up in the Middle East.