The group stage of the Champions League and the CAF Cup begins on Friday evening. Thirty-two teams are involved, and they are trained by coaches of eighteen different nationalities, including twelve Africans.
Bnedict McCarthy, one of the coaches of the African continent
During the African Cup of Nations , which ended on February 6 with Senegal’s first title, fifteen of the twenty-four qualified teams were led by an African coach. The trend remains the same at the level of the clubs involved in the group stage of the Champions League and the CAF Cup, with a majority of Africans.
South Africa has more coaches in place (4) than qualified teams (2). If Mamelodi Sundows is in the hands of the Manqoba Mungqithi-Rulami Mokwena tandem and AmaZulu FC has entrusted the keys to former international Benedict McCarthy, two other teams have called on a native coach from the Rainbow nation. They are Al-Ahly (Egypt) with Pitso Mosimane, who will face his former club on February 26 and March 12, and Morena Ramoreboli, who raised Jwaneng Galaxy (Botswana) to this level for the first time in his history.
In addition to AmaZulu FC and Mamelodi Sundows, four other teams are coached by a local: Espérance Tunis by Radhi Jaïdi, WAC Casablanca by Walid Regragui, as well as the two representatives of Angola, Sagrada Esperanca by Roque Sapiri and Petro de Luanda by Mateus Manuel Agostinho. The Senegalese Lamine N’Diaye officiates at Horoya AC and the Tunisian Nabil Kouki at ES Sétif (Algeria).
Finally, six teams are led by technicians from other continents. Among these expatriates are the French Patrice Carteron (Zamalek, Egypt) and Roger Lemerre (Etoile du Sahel, Tunisia), the Portuguese Joao Mota (Al-Hilal, Sudan), the Englishman Lee Clark (Al-Merreikh, Sudan), the Belgian Marc Wilmots (Raja Casablanca, Morocco) and the Brazilian Marcos Paqueta (CR Belouizdad, Algeria).
CAF Cup: four Tunisians in charge
Fathi Jebal (Al-Ahli Tripoli, Libya), Kaïs Yaacoubi (JS Saoura, Algeria) , Mouine Chaabani (Al-masry, Egypt) and Mohamed Kouki (Al-Ittihad Tripoli, Libya): they are four Tunisians to be on the line from the group stage of the CAF Cup, but none at the helm of a team from their country of origin. This is however the case for Kelvin Kaindu (Zanaco FC, Zambia), Ehab Galal (Pyramids FC), Edwin Maisubela (Royal Leopards, Eswatini), the duo Mania Ncikazi-Fadluraghman Davids (Orlando Pirates, South Africa), Souleymanou Aboubakar (Cotton Sport Garoua, Cameroon) and Zakariaou Yaou (USGN, Niger).
Congolese (DRC) Florent Ibenge coaches Renaissance Sportive de Berkane (Morocco) and Malian Aliou Badra AS Otoho (Congo). Finally, two Frenchmen – Franck Dumas at TP Mazembe (DR Congo) and Julien Chevalier at ASEC Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) – are in post, as well as the Spaniard Pablo Franco (Simba SC, Tanzania) and the Portuguese Jorge Costa ( CS Sfax, Tunisia).
Bnedict McCarthy, one of the coaches of the African continent
