Who is new AmaZulu coach Pablo Franco?

AmaZulu appointed Spaniard Pablo Franco Martin as their new head coach on Tuesday, taking on a troubled role that has seen four incumbents in the last 15 months. But who is the new man in charge?

Known informally only as Pablo Franco, the 43-year-old holds a Uefa Pro License and had no real playing career to speak of at professional level. He also holds degrees in physical education.

He has ‘job hopped’ quite a bit in his coaching career, especially latterly with Usuthu his fifth club in the last five years but does have some big names on his CV.

Born in Madrid, he became assistant coach at Spanish lower league Coria at the age of 28 and after one season moved to fellow minnows Fuenlabrada, again as assistant.

He got his big break as a head coach when he joined Santa Eugenia in the local Madrid league, leading them to 8th and 14th in his two seasons with a 38 per cent win record.

Franco moved to Illescas and spent the 2012/13 season there, before he was on the move yet gain to Puertollano in the fourth-tier of Spanish football, where he claimed the league title in an outstanding campaign in which he won 31 out of 38 games, scoring 88 goals and conceding only 18.

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President Sandile Zungu announces the new head coach of AmaZulu Football Club ???????????#HebeUsuthu#UsuthuTogether pic.twitter.com/cD61oF5Kae

— AmaZulu FC (@AmaZuluFootball) June 20, 2023

That prompted a move to the reserve side of local Madrid outfit Getafe for the 2014/15 season, but before the campaign was finished he was elevated to lead the first team in LaLiga when Quique Sánchez Flores resigned with the team in 13th.

Franco led them for 14 LaLiga games but won only three and lost nine, including a 6-0 defeat by Barcelona and a 7-3 loss to Real Madrid. He was replaced at the end of the campaign, in which they finished 15th, by Fran Escribá.

Franco was out of work for almost a year before he joined Georgian side Saburtalo Tbilisi, where he won 10 of his 22 games in charge and left in December 2016.

After another six months without a job he popped up as assistant coach at BJ Enterprises in China, before a dream role as assistant to Julen Lopetegui at Real Madrid in the 2018/19 season.

But he left when Lopetegui was axed only three months later and replaced by the Argentine Santiago Solari, who brought in his own technical team.

Franco went back abroad and joined Kuwait club Qadsia ahead of the 2019/20 season and spent two campaigns with them. He led them to second place in both campaigns in which he was in charge.

He signed for Tanzanian side Simba SC in a first foray in Africa in November 2021 and stayed with them to the end of the campaign.

They finished runner-up to Young Africans, though a full 13 points behind the winners and never really in the running for the title.

He did lead Simba to the quarterfinals of the Confederation Cup where he had his first brush with South African football.

Simba beat Orlando Pirates 1-0 in the home leg of their tie but lost the away leg by the same scoreline in Soweto and were beaten 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out that followed.

He left Simba in June 2022 and had been without a job for a year before taking up the reins at AmaZulu.

Franco has been close to a position in the PSL before. At the time it was reported he was in the running for the Pirates job before the club ultimately decided on his compatriot Jose Riveiro.

At the same time he had been of interest to Marumo Gallants when they went for young Frenchman Romain Folz, who ironically had a poor spell with AmaZulu last season after a quick departure from Gallants.

It had also been reported that Franco put his name forward for the SuperSport United position before that went to Gavin Hunt.