Joel Santana was appointed coach of South Africa’s national soccer team on Wednesday.
The Brazilian coach replaces Carlos Alberto Parreira, who resigned on Monday to be with his family and ill wife.
The South African Football Association said the appointment was made following a recommendation by Parreira and the acceptance of the job offer by Santana. The 59-year-old Santana is expected in South Africa on May 9, the organization said.
PHOTO: AP
Santana said taking over South Africa, the host country for the 2010 World Cup, was a “blessing.”
“I’m confident about the task ahead of me and I believe my experience in working with many top clubs will assist in preparing the team for the big challenge ahead,” Santana said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Flamengo said Santana would start coaching South Africa after their final playoff game against Botafogo for the Rio de Janeiro state championship on May 4.
Santana, who has coached Flamengo four times, was seen as a miracle worker last year after he took the club from the relegation zone to third place in the national tournament and a berth in the Copa Libertadores this year.
News that Parreira was to resign sent the national team into disarray two years before the country hosts the World Cup.
Parreira, who led Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title, was hired 16 months ago in a bid to revive the country’s struggling national team. He put together a young and inexperienced team that, after a series of poor results, was beginning to show some promise.
Parreira’s tactics of relying on domestic talent boosted by just a handful of foreign-based players, like Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy, seemed to be paying off when South Africa beat Paraguay 3-0 in a friendly last month.
Parreira said he recommended Santana because he was a “specialist in winning championships.”
“He has won many championships with big clubs in Brazil and has coached great Brazilian players like Romario, Bebeto and Juninho just to name a few,” Parreira said.
Parreira’s reported monthly salary of almost US$250,000 caused an outcry in a country battling poverty and unemployment. Reacting to the reports that Santana was to be appointed, Johannesburg daily newspaper the Star criticized the choice of a coach who has never run a national team and has been fired four times in two years. The newspaper reported that Santana will be earning nearly US$200,000 a month.
On Monday, Santana said the offer was too good to turn down.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime proposal,” Santana said.
“To compete in the World Cup is the dream of every [soccer] professional,” he said.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
RSS