Menzi Magubane
For the first time in Fifa World Cup history all five African teams at the tournament will be coached by locals.
Senegal, Morocco, Cameroon, Tunisia and Ghana will be led by natives from their respective countries at the games in Qatar in November.
Aliou Cisse (Senegal), Rigobert Song (Cameroon), Jalel Kadri (Tunisia), Otto Addo (Ghana) and Walid Regragui (Morocco) went through the playoffs to lead their teams in the tournament scheduled for 20 November to 18 December.
In past World Cups, African teams have tended to prefer international coaches – especially those from Europe.
Senegal boss Aliou Cisse was appointed in 2015 and his biggest achievement in the hot seat so far is winning the Afcon in February after beating Egypt in the final. After that he guided the Lions of Teranga to qualify for Qatar by beating the Pharos yet again.
For Cameroon the qualification was the consolation after failing to win the Afcon at home. That failure sent coach Toni Conceicao packing his bags and Cameroon FA president Samuel Eto’o appointed his former teammate Rigobert Song as the national coach.
The former captain’s first task was to lead the team to the World Cup qualification and he aced it.
With German-born Addo at the helm for Ghana as interim coach, the Black Stars beat Nigeria to also secure a spot in the showpiece.
The former player took over from Milovan Rajevac after Afcon and headed to Qatar as the interim boss.
Kadri is the only coach out of the five who never played football but he was in charge when Tunisia beat Mali for the place in Qatar.
After a horrible Afcon, Morocco sacked Vahid Halilodzic in August to appoint Regragui. Even though the Bosnians beat DR Congo for the place in Qatar the association preferred Regragui to lead them in the tournament.
