DUTCHMAN Elroy Akbay is the frontrunner to land the Highlanders’ job after he came to the country to meet with the Bosso management.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
The former champions, who have been a pale shadow of their former selves, however, claim the coach was only in Zimbabwe for an interview and had not yet been offered the job.
Of all the foreign coaches that have been linked with the job, only Akbay came to Zimbabwe, while the rest were engaged with via WhatsApp or Skype.
Club chief executive officer, Ndumiso Gumede was set to present a report to the club’s hierarchy on the outcome of the interview yesterday.
Akbay watched Highlanders beat Buffaloes in a league match at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.
“He was here for an interview. His tickets to fly into the country for the interview were organised by a benefactor, who is not (Makokoba legislator) Tshinga Dube,” Gumede said.
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“We had an interview with him on Thursday last week and on Friday, he had a mock session with our Under-19s. Those two (the interview and the training session) are going to be taken into account. In front of me right now, I have the report from the interviewing panel which I will be tabling today (yesterday) at our 5pm meeting.”
Dube is a long time Bosso benefactor.
Gumede said they had the chance to engage some foreign coaches, who have shown interest in the Highlanders hot seat online via Skype and WhatsApp messaging, adding: “It’s different when you have someone who is here and you are seeing him face-to-face.”
At one of the club’s regular weekly Press conferences, Gumede may have let the cat out of the bag when he revealed that the new Highlanders coach would be coming into the country.
Akbay is heading back to the Netherlands today.
Other foreign coaches who have submitted their CVs to Highlanders include Clemens Westerhof and Hendrik Pieter de Jong, both Dutch, with the latter based in Kenya.
Westerhof is a former Warriors gaffer.
Former Caps United coach Mark Harrison, now in Botswana with Township Rollers, also submitted his CV together with Scotsman Desmond Bulpin, Zambian Dean Mwende, Ethiopian Anteneh Eshete, Malawian Kinnah Phiri and American Jeff Cook.
