Sports / Soccer
Pasuwa misses out on Flames job
09 Apr 2017 at 08:01hrs | Views
FORMER Warriors' coach Kalisto Pasuwa looks set to miss out on the vacant coaching post of the Malawi senior national team following reports that the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) appears to have settled for Belgian Ronny Van Geneugden.
Van Geneugden, who was last week reported to have also applied for the vacant Warriors coaching post, arrived in Malawi last Thursday with his agent, Carlo Antonio Cabrera for the final stage of negotiations and is expected to be unveiled as the new Flames coach this week.
Pasuwa had been touted to land the Malawi job after leading Zimbabwe to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals held in Gabon in January — their first appearance at the continental showpiece event since 2006.
Zimbabwe overcame the Flames 2-1 in their backyard in the qualifiers before completing a double over them in Harare in June with a 3-0 victory that sealed the Warriors' place at the 2017 Afcon finals held in Gabon in January.
The victories over Malawi had reportedly earned Pasuwa a lot of admirers in that country, which made him the hot favourite for the job ahead of several coaches that had been linked with the post including former Warriors goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar and former coach Ian Gorowa.
In fact, FAM had reportedly enquired on Pasuwa's availability with his manager Gibson Mahachi.
However, the Malawian football governing body appears to have settled for Van Geneugden, with its president, Walter Nyamilandu virtually confirming that the deal was as good as done.
"We are hoping to finalise everything next week so that he [Van Geneugden] can get to work as soon as possible," Nyamilandu told www.fam.mw yesterday.
FAM's website added that "should the talks be successful, Van Geneugden's first task will be the 2018 African Nations Championship preliminary qualifiers against Madagascar [on April 22]."
Van Geneugden, who is former coach of Belgian Jupiler Pro League side Genk and second Division side Oud-Heverleen Leuven, was previously employed by Cypriot side, Enosis Neon Paralimni.
Source - the standard
